Today, we bring you another HipTip that anyone coming from the world of IRC should enjoy. While keyboard shortcuts are great for most things, sometimes you need to add a little context to your commands. Enter slash commands.

All HipChat slash commands take the form “/<command> <argument>”:

• /join <room name> - This will let you into any pre-existing room, but since HipChat rooms have fairly loose naming conventions (we allow things like spaces and non-alphanumeric characters), we generally suggest using the ctrl-j shortcut instead. Still, if you just can’t give up your IRC-style navigation, it can be helpful.
• /part - Leave the room you’re currently in.
• /available | /back | /here <msg> - Shortcut for setting your status to available (green bubble). The <msg> part is optional.
• /away <msg> – Set your status to away (yellow bubble). In appearance, this is the same as going idle, except it doesn’t automatically return your status to ‘available’ when you come back.
• /dnd <msg> - Set status to do not disturb (red bubble)
• /topic <msg> - Set the topic for the current room (just like if you hit ctrl-t or double clicked on the topic bar and typed something in)

If there are any other slash commands that you wish HipChat had, let us know. We know how hard it can be to switch from another system for internal communication and we’re always looking for ways to improve workflows for people coming from other chat products.