How+to+wiki

This page is designed to be a resource for those who would like to learn how to use a wiki. If you have never used one before, start at the beginning but if you would just like to learn a few new tricks, click on one of the anchor links below.


 * What is a wiki? ~ || ~ Getting started ~ || ~ Basic editing ~  || ~ Advanced formatting ~  || ~ Uploading files and pics ~ || ~ Working with widgets ~ ||
 * Working with tables ||  ||   ||   ||   ||   ||

What is a wiki?
A wiki is a web site. The real difference between many other web sites and a wiki is that a wiki can have multiple users who edit and contribute to the site all the time. The goal of this type of site is that it will foster collaboration and ensure that the content of the wiki grows exponentially until the usefulness of the wiki has been outgrown. A wiki can hold almost all the same kinds of content that a static web site can although a wiki can be monitored easily, edited easily, reviewed for past edits, and most wikis allow for active discussion among its users. *Notice the "Discussion" link in the upper left hand corner of this page. Examples of famous wikis include:
 * Wikipedia -the most famous, peer edited encyclopedia
 * WikiTravel - a travel guide
 * Wookieepedia - Star Wars encyclopedia (had to put this one in there)

Here is an explanation: media type="youtube" key="-dnL00TdmLY" height="385" width="480"

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Getting started
So now that you know what a wiki is, let's get started. Since you are here reading this content, we can assume that you figured out how to sign up for an account and navigate your way to this page. Let's take a look at the environment of this site and give you a brief summary of what all of the elements mean. media type="custom" key="6580399"

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Basic editing
Here is a video to show you how to create a new page and accomplish some basic editing tasks:

media type="custom" key="6580213"

When you click the following link, it will open a new tab (or window) and create a new page. Name the page with your name (ex. JohnDoe) and type the word "member" in the tag box. Click here to get started.

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Advanced editing
The next step is to take your pages and content to the next level with the types of formatting you use to organize the content. Some keys to remember as you build the content of a given page are to organize it with attention to the other users who will be reading it. media type="custom" key="6580221"

Task:
Spend time practicing your new skills by creating content for your own page. Use each of the editing tools we have covered so far and then analyze your page for how well the content is organized and presented.

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Uploading Pictures and Files
Before you upload pictures and Files we should discuss some of the common considerations you will want to take into account before doing this. With files or documents of one kind or another, we should consider the format more than any other element. For a document such as a MS Word document, you should consider whether or not you want the person downloading it to be able to edit the document. If not, converting it to a pdf would be wise because it is certainly cross platform and version independent. This means that the document will be able to be viewed on most computers (mac or windows) and on many smart phones.

If you are uploading a picture or graphic, you need to make sure that it is in one of three different file formats so that it will display properly. Those three formats are jpg, gif, png and each one has it's own characteristics. Beyond that, you should just make sure that it is sized nicely for the purpose and page it is being displayed upon. For instance, let's say you take a picture with a digital camera and want to display it on a wiki page. If you download the picture to your computer and then upload it directly, it will likely be quit large which will cause two things to happen: first, you will have to resize it within the wiki page to fit and second, the page will load slower when you or others view it. It is good practice to reduce the size of the picture with something like iPhoto, Photoshop, or Windows Live Photo Gallery. Some cameras come with software that will do this for you relatively automatically. Make sure you don't save over your original and remember where you saved it so that it is easy to find when you upload.

Working with Widgets
There are wide variety of "widgets" a user can include in their content for a wiki page. Widgets are small elements or applications added from other sources which are embedded or act upon the data provided. They can include interactive features, video, audio, embedded documents and forms, navigation features, RSS feeds, and much more. Here are a couple of examples:

rss url="http://rss.cnn.com/rss/cnn_topstories.rss" link="true" number="5" media type="googlemap" key="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Eagle,+CO&aq=3&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=34.396866,79.013672&safe=active&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Eagle,+Colorado&ll=39.655267,-106.828651&spn=0.013216,0.017252&z=14&iwloc=A&output=embed" height="200" width="200" Most widgets from external sources such as YouTube or Google Maps are embeddable through the use of code generated by those sites. It is merely a matter of copying and pasting this code from your source into the proper place. Here is a good video (embedded with a widget) explaining how it is done for YouTube videos: media type="youtube" key="mq3gOaYy5i0" height="349" width="425"

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Working with Tables== Using tables within your wiki pages can have a variety of uses