How to Create Strikethrough Text in Notion and Slack

You pasted ignore this line into a Slack message and sent it. The tildes showed up literally. No line crossed anything out. That is the most common strikethrough text notion slack mistake: copying GitHub markdown into a chat app that expects a different wrapper. When plain fields reject formatting entirely, open the Strikethrough Text Generator and copy Unicode long stroke instead.

Strikethrough text in Notion and Slack can come from native formatting, from Slack's single-tilde syntax, or from Unicode combining marks you paste into plain fields. This tutorial covers all three paths, when native Notion strikethrough beats Unicode, why Slack rejects double tildes, and what to do when crossed-out letters revert after save.

What are the three ways to cross out text in Notion and Slack?

Strikethrough text is visible copy with a horizontal line through it, used for completed tasks, sarcasm, and spoiler jokes. Notion stores native strikethrough as rich-text styling inside editable blocks per Notion's text formatting help. Slack renders it when you wrap words with single tildes and the composer runs its message formatting pass. Unicode strikethrough is a third path: each letter keeps its normal glyph while U+0336 COMBINING LONG STROKE OVERLAY draws the line during render.

The three methods are not interchangeable. Native Notion strikethrough exports with semantic strike styling. Slack tildes need a message field with formatting enabled. Unicode rides on plain UTF-8 strings in property cells where neither toolbar nor tilde parsers run. Pick the path that matches the field type.

Concrete example: the word done in native Notion strike looks crossed out in the editor and survives export. The same word as ~done~ in Slack chat crosses out when formatting is on. As Unicode long stroke it becomes d̶o̶n̶e̶, four base letters each followed by U+0336 in the clipboard string. Same meaning on screen. Three different storage shapes behind it.

How do you strikethrough text inside Notion blocks?

Highlight the phrase inside a Notion page block and press Command+Shift+S on Mac or Control+Shift+S on Windows, or click the strikethrough button in the floating toolbar. Native Notion strikethrough applies immediately and stays attached to the rich text run. That is the right default for task lists and meeting notes you might export.

For database property cells that behave like plain text, native strike often never appears because mobile clients hide the full toolbar. Paste Unicode from the Strikethrough Text Generator instead. Type your label, choose Long Stroke, copy, and paste. Each letter carries one combining mark while spaces stay unmarked.

Honest limitation: Unicode in a title property can flatten on sync if Notion revalidates the string. Native strike inside a paragraph block stores formatting metadata, not extra code points per letter. Use native strike in page content. Reserve Unicode for plain property cells.

How do you strikethrough text inside Slack messages?

In Slack messages, wrap the phrase with single tildes: ~old budget~ renders with a line through the words when formatting is enabled. Select the text and use Command+Shift+X on Mac or Control+Shift+X on Windows, or click the strikethrough icon in the formatting bar.

Slack status text and some app fields skip the tilde parser. Generate crossed-out copy with the Strikethrough Text Generator, paste, save, and reopen on mobile. If the stroke survives, the field stores full UTF-8. If it vanishes, the client stripped marks from the Combining Diacritical Marks block (U+0300 through U+036F).

Do not paste double tildes from GitHub habits. Slack treats them as literal characters. One tilde on each side.

Slack also exposes strikethrough through the formatting bar when you select text before typing. That path inserts the same single-tilde wrapper the markdown parser expects. If you paste pre-wrapped ~text~ from another app, confirm formatting is enabled in the composer. Plain-text mode in some Slack workflows shows the tildes literally even though the same account renders strike in channel messages.

How do you add strikethrough to Notion database properties step by step?

Database properties are where native Notion strikethrough text notion slack workflows break most often. Page blocks get the toolbar. Property cells often do not.

Step 1. Open the database in the view where you edit the property. Tap the cell you need to label, not the page icon beside it.

Step 2. Try native strike first if the rich toolbar appears. Highlight the word and press Command+Shift+S or Control+Shift+S. If the S icon is missing, you are in a plain text property.

Step 3. Open the Strikethrough Text Generator, type the label, choose Long Stroke, and copy the output. Each letter should carry U+0336 in raw preview.

Step 4. Paste into the property cell and click away to commit the value.

Step 5. Refresh the database view on mobile. Property sync sometimes lags one beat behind the desktop editor.

Step 6. If the stroke vanished, the property type normalized combining marks on write. Move the label into a rich paragraph block inside the page instead, or keep plain text without strike.

Formula-backed properties and rollup fields never run the rich toolbar. Treat them like plain UTF-8 storage and default to Unicode long stroke from the start.

Notion callout blocks and toggle headings usually inherit the page-block toolbar, so native strike works there without Unicode. Linked database views that open rows as side panels sometimes show the property editor without formatting chrome. When in doubt, paste a three-letter Unicode test before you cross out an entire sprint label.

Exported Notion HTML and PDF snapshots preserve native strikethrough more cleanly than pasted U+0336 strings. If you are building a client-facing doc, native strike inside paragraph blocks is worth the extra click.

Slack threads that mix code blocks and formatted chat can confuse the issue further. Tildes inside triple-backtick fences stay literal because the formatter treats the fence as preformatted text. Strike the summary line outside the fence, or use Unicode long stroke inside the code sample if you truly need a crossed-out string in monospace.

When should native formatting beat Unicode strikethrough?

Native formatting wins inside Notion page blocks and Slack messages where toolbars or tilde syntax already run. Unicode wins in plain property cells, status lines, and any field that stores raw characters without a markdown pass. The split is about field type, not brand loyalty to either app.

And here is the trade nobody puts in a shortcut cheat sheet: Unicode strikethrough increases code-point count because each letter adds an invisible mark. Slack counts those units toward message limits. Native strike only adds two wrapper characters. For a three-word spoiler in chat, tildes are lighter. For a Notion property label on phone, Unicode is often the only option.

What breaks strikethrough text after paste in Notion or Slack?

Strikethrough breaks when the storage path does not match the method you used. Double-tilde markdown in Slack shows raw symbols. Unicode in a Notion rich block sometimes double-stacks with native strike. Clients that normalize input on save drop combining marks, which leaves plain letters with no line.

Strike plus underline mode stacks U+0336 and U+0332 on every character and fails first when an app limits combining depth. Step down to long stroke only.

Test with a three-letter word before you ship a spoiler. Paste ~test~ in Slack, or copy t̶e̶s̶t̶ into a Notion property. Save, reopen on a second device. Screen readers may announce each combining stroke separately, so skip Unicode strike in company-wide Notion docs when native formatting is one click away.

I keep a three-letter Unicode test string saved for Notion property cells because mobile toolbars disappear right when you need native strike.

How do you cross out text in Slack status and profile fields?

Slack status lines and some profile-adjacent fields do not parse ~tildes~. They store the characters you paste. That is the main reason strikethrough text notion slack guides disagree: channel messages are not status text.

Open the Strikethrough Text Generator, type your status phrase, pick Long Stroke, and copy. Paste into the status field in Slack preferences, save, and view your profile from a second account or incognito window. Status text renders on desktop profile cards and mobile avatars with smaller type, so thin combining strokes can look faint. Long Stroke mode uses U+0336, which survives more often than underline-plus-stroke stacks.

For channel messages, stay with single tildes. For status lines, stay with Unicode. Mixing them up produces the literal-tilde bug from the intro.

Discord channel messages use doubled tildes in many markdown-aware renderers, which is another common mix-up if you bounce between Slack and Discord in the same afternoon. Slack single, Discord double, Notion native inside blocks. Write the rule on a sticky note if you paste strike daily. The Notion formatting reference lists native strike inside blocks, while Slack message formatting documents the single-tilde wrapper for chat.

For combining-mark failures in chat apps with longer stacks, see Why Does Zalgo Text Break Discord. For device-level font gaps that make strike look uneven after paste, see Why Does Graffiti Text Look Different Across Devices.

Common questions about strikethrough in Notion and Slack

Does Slack use double tildes for strikethrough like GitHub?

No. Slack message formatting expects single tildes on each side: strike not strike. Double tildes paste as literal characters in most Slack composers. GitHub Flavored Markdown and Discord use doubled tildes in code-aware renderers. Copy the wrapper syntax from the platform docs you are actually typing in, not from another app.

What is the Notion keyboard shortcut for strikethrough?

Command+Shift+S on macOS and Control+Shift+S on Windows apply native strikethrough to selected text inside editable blocks. The formatting toolbar exposes the same command with an S icon. That shortcut does not run inside every database property type, which is why Unicode paste remains useful in plain text property cells.

When should you use Unicode strikethrough instead of native formatting?

Use Unicode combining marks when the surface is plain text with no rich editor: Notion select and text properties on mobile, Slack status text, some webhook payloads, and captions that never pass through a markdown renderer. Native Notion strikethrough is better inside page blocks because it exports cleanly and screen readers understand semantic strike tags when Notion renders them.

Why did crossed-out text paste as plain letters in Slack?

The composer may have been in a plain-text mode, the wrapper syntax was wrong, or the client stripped combining marks on save. Double tildes fail in Slack chat. Unicode fails when the field normalizes input and drops marks from the Combining Diacritical Marks block (U+0300 through U+036F). Test one short word, send it, and reopen the thread before you paste a full spoiler sentence.

Can you strikethrough text in Notion database properties?

Rich page blocks support native strikethrough from the toolbar or shortcut. Many plain text and formula-backed property cells accept pasted Unicode with U+0336 attached to each letter instead. Title properties and synced blocks behave differently on mobile, where the rich toolbar sometimes never appears. Paste a three-letter test, refresh, and read the cell on phone before you rely on it for labels.

Does Unicode strikethrough count extra characters in Slack?

Yes. Each combining mark is its own code point after the base letter. The visible word done with long stroke mode stores four letters plus four U+0336 marks. Slack message limits count those invisible units. Short spoiler phrases stay safe. A paragraph with strike plus underline mode, which stacks two marks per letter, doubles the hidden payload and fails more often when clients cap combining depth.