Basic Principles
| The basic principles of using and editing wikis are necessarily simple and easy to learn -- that's the whole point of a wiki. The word "wiki" means "quick." The primary feature that defines a wiki is the ability of any authorized person -- or any person at all -- to directly edit any page on a website, to add new pages to the website, to inspect the revision history of every page, and to link to both internal and external pages. These affordances make it possible for groups or populations to create public knowledge repositories like Wikipedia and to author documents. Group authorship capabilities can afford new forms of collaboration among people and enterprises. |
1. Edit this Page
All wikis will have some kind of "edit" link or button on every page. The Participatory Media Literacy wiki here at Socialtext.net allows you both to choose the "Edit This Page" link (near the top of this page), or simply to doubleclick anywhere on the page. Socialtext offers a WYSIWYG editor, which requires no HTML or other coding. Most wikis have their own simple syntax that's easy to learn and makes it easy to markup text, create simple formatting and add new pages or external links. Learning by inspection is a key to many participatory media: the ability to "view source" enabled the earliest creators of web pages to inspect the html code on a web page, then copy and modify it. Similarly, you can learn the syntax of any wiki by clicking on the "edit" link and inspecting the source code of a page, observing how internal and external links are made, how italic and boldface formatting are indicated, etc. For most of these functions, WYWIWYG editors make the process easier, but it is always possible on a wiki to find out how the syntax works by inspecting it.
2. History
Another key features of wikis is the "History" function, which allows you to see all past versions of a page, and revert to any of those edits instead of the current version. So there's no need to worry about making a mistake -- you can always return to an earlier version.
3. Links and pages
With most wikis, you can create new pages by selecting "New Page," or by creating a link to new page name, and then clicking on that link. Wikis depend on simple yet unique file names to distinguish pages from one another, so be sure to create links or new pages with relatively straightforward yet descriptive names. Note that this page is named "Using and Editing Wikis" and the URL for this page is using and editing wikis
4. Formatting
Most wikis will include some kind of basic guide to show you how to add italics, bold, external links, bulleted or numbered lists, headers, and tables. You can usually view the simple formatting markup by selecting edit mode on an existing page, and see how that page was written. Then test it out yourself and see how it looks -- many wikis will also let you preview any changes before making them.
5. Adding Media and Files
Many wikis will allow you to upload various kind of files, such as pdfs, Word docs, and images. Images in web formats like gif and jpeg can often be displayed in the wiki itself.
How-to Guides
PeanutButterWiki: Step-by-step guide
Pbwiki is an easy-to-use, web-based wiki that lets you create private and public wikis hosted on their servers. The basic version is free, but they offer a premium upgrade with additional features and more advanced controls. You can use Pbwiki to create a new community wiki, a wiki for your office, home, or personal use. To create, edit and maintain your own wiki on pbwiki.com, here are some basic guidelines. |
1. Getting Started Go to http://www.pbwiki.com
2. Create Your Wiki Choose a name for your wiki, enter your email address, and click "Make wiki." Pbwiki will then send you a confirmation email.
- Finish creating the wiki by clicking the link in the email, or copying and pasting it into your web browser.
- Choose a password for your wiki, read and agree to the terms of service, and decide whether or not to make your wiki public.
3. Templates & Features Once you've created your wiki, you can explore its features -- you'll find links on the front page to a tour of Pbwiki, templates you can use, guides to creating and editing pages, and instructions on style and formatting.
4. Editing To edit pages, just click the "Edit page" button at either the top or bottom of each page. Then type text directly into the text box, and click "Save" (or "Preview" to see how your changes will look before implementing them).
5. Formatting You can edit the look of text by using the formatting links at the top of the page, which will add the necessary code (but you can use the style guide to learn the simple markup code yourself).
6. Creating New Pages Create new pages with or without the pre-made templates, and share your new wiki with others.
Tips:
- Sidebar -- to create a sidebar that will show up on all pages, just click "New Page" and call it SideBar. Whatever text you add will show up as a sidebar on all pages.
- Links -- you can create internal links automatically by typing a compound word, such as ShoppingList (just make sure the first letter of each word is capitalized). Then save your page, and click on the link -- and voila, new page named ShoppingList.
- Table of contents -- You can create a simple table of contents for any page by adding the code <toc> anywhere on that page (any text marked as headers will show up on the table of contents).
- Settings -- Click on Settings to change the name of the wiki (but not the URL, just the text as it displays on all pages), or to add text to the login page (such as the password or a password hint). Explore the Settings menu to publicize your wiki, change the password, download a .ZIP backup, select a different color scheme, and edit other settings (some settings, like site traffic statistics, require upgrading to premium).
- RSS/Atom feeds -- Pbwiki offers RSS support so you can create a feed of recent changes to your wiki, which users can subscribe to. Just click on the RSS icon at the bottom right of any page on your wiki, and you'll be taken to the RSS 2.0 page generated by Pbwiki. Then copy and paste the URL location (it should appear in the location bar at the top of your browser) into your RSS reader or aggregator of choice. However, since Pbwikis are password protected, you'll need a reader that support authentication (unfortunately, some popular ones like Bloglines do not, and will give you an error).
- Add/upload files -- you can upload additional files and images by clicking on "Files." For instance, if you upload a picture from your desktop, it will then show up in the hints column on the right when editing any page. Just click on the image to insert it into your page.
For additional help, how-to's and information, check out the FAQ or the discussion forums:
http://pbwiki.com/faq.php
http://forums.pbwiki.com/
