What is a Wiki? #
- a technology for collaborative creation of internet and intranet pages
- Wiki-Wiki is hawaii and means fast
Principles #
- Fast - fast editing, communicating and easy to learn
- Open - everybody may read and edit everything
- Uncomplicated - everything works in a standard browser
- Easy - no HTML knowledge necessary, simply formatted text
- Simple - Content over Form (content counts, not the super-pretty appearance)
- Secure - every change is archived, nothing gets lost
- Interlinked - Links between pages are easy to make
- Flexible
- Personal Information Management, Knowledgebases, Brainstorming
- Collaboration, Coordination and Communication platform
- Creating documentation and slide shows
- etc...
The First Steps #
- Help with problems or questions: HelpContents (
) and HelpMiscellaneous/FrequentlyAskedQuestions
- UserPreferences
- Name (appears on RecentChanges)
- Email address for subscribing to page change emails and retrieving a lost login/password
- Personal preferences
- Link with User-ID (
in any case, put a bookmark on that)
- Structure of pages
- Navigation: Quicklinks, Icons link to system actions (HelpOnNavigation)
- "Recently visited pages" (see UserPreferences)
- Content
- Quick search and additional actions (HelpOnActions)
How do I navigate? #
Searching and Navigation:
- Backlinks (click on title)
- Icons at top right (HelpOnNavigation)
- Title search and full text search at bottom of page
- WikiSandBox: Sandbox page to play around and experiment with
- RecentChanges: What has changed recently?
- SiteNavigation: A list of the different indices of the Wiki
- FindPage: Searching the Wiki by various methods
- TitleIndex: A list of all pages in the Wiki
- WordIndex: A list of all words in page titles (i.e. a list of keywords/concepts in the Wiki)
Using the Editor #
To edit a page, just click on
or on the link "`EditText`" at the end of the page. A form will appear enabling you to change text and save it again. A backup copy of the previous page's content is made each time.
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You can check the appearance of the page without saving it by using the preview function - without creating an entry on RecentChanges; additionally there will be an intermediate save of the page content, if you have created a homepage (
is visible).
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Tips on the Editor #
"Check spelling" examines the text for unknown words.
Within the editor, the usual hotkeys work:
Undo: CTRL+Z | Redo: CTRL+Y |
Copy: CTRL+C | Paste: CTRL+V |
Home: CTRL+Home | End: CTRL+End |
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Text Markup and Links #
To add special formatting to text, just enclose it within markup. There are special notations which are automatically recognized as internal or external links or as embedded pictures.
Input | Display |
''italic'' and '''bold''' and __underlined__ | italic and bold and underlined |
`typewriter` | typewriter |
^super^script and ,,sub,,script | ^super^script and subscript |
PageReference WikiSandBox | PageReference WikiSandBox |
MoinMoin:HelpContents | ![]() |
http://www.web.de/ | http://www.web.de/ |
http://www.pythonwiki.de/wiki/img/moinmoin.gif | ![]() |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
For details see HelpOnFormatting, HelpOnLinking and HelpOnSmileys.
Headlines and Paragraphs #
Headlines are placed on a line of their own and surrounded by one to five equal signs denoting the level of the headline. The headline is in between the equal signs, separated by a space. Example:
== Second Level ==
== Second Level ==
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Preformatted text (e.g. a copy of an email) should be placed inside three curly braces ` ... `:
First Line ... Last Line
For better visual separation, horizontal lines can be generated by using four dashes.
Lists #
item list #
- first level
- second Level
- second item
indented text without bullet
- first level again
enumerated list #
- first item
- second item (automatically enumerated)
Tables #
Tables appear if you separate the content of the columns by ||. All fields of the same row must be also on the same line in the editor.
Markup:
Display:
||<rowbgcolor="#FFFFE0"> '''Column 1''' |||| '''Column 2 & 3''' || ||<)> 1 ||<:> 2 ||<(> 3 ||
Column 1 | Column 2 & 3 | |
1 | 2 | 3 |
For details see HelpOnTables.
Macros #
- Macros allow dynamic (computed) content to be inserted into pages.
- A macro is called by "MacroName".
- The parameters are optional, depending on the macro.
- The most important macros:
For details see HelpOnMacros.
Creating new Pages #
New pages are created by simply adding a new WikiName to an existing page and clicking on it after saving the existing page.
This brings up a page with a variety of possibilities to create the new page:
- click on create page to start with an empty page or
- click on one of the listed templates to base your page on the content of the selected template.
For details see HelpOnPageCreation and WikiName.
Actions #
Actions operate either on a single page or on the whole Wiki.
- AttachFile: Attach files to a page (HelpOnActions/AttachFile)
- DeletePage: Delete a page (after a security question)
- LikePages: Lists pages with similar title
- LocalSiteMap: List of all pages that are referred to, up to a maximum of 4 levels
- SpellCheck: Call check spelling for the current page (HelpOnSpellCheck)
For details see HelpOnActions.
Wikiquette - how do I behave correctly? #
Cooperative Editing #
Basic principle: Anybody logged in can edit anything.
Exceptions:
- If you want to edit a page without being disturbed, just write a note to that effect at the top of the page and save that change first.
- If two people edit a page simultaneously, the first can save normally, but the second will get a warning and should follow the directions to merge their changes with the already saved data.
- Personal Homepages: normally only changed by their owner, but you may append messages at the end of the page
Organisation and Structure #
- Naming
- Index pages
- Categories (see CategoryCategory)
- Templates
- /SubPages (allow shorter links, automatic correlation: HelpOnEditing/SubPages)
- Follow the guidance of the Wiki used about how to name pages etc.
Exercises #
For the exercises we use your own Wiki-homepage which is usually based on a WikiName FirstnameLastname:
- Configure your UserPreferences.
- create and change your homepage (normally FirstnameLastname)
- view the changes in the RecentChanges.
- try the icons
- unrestrained clicking
- ask, ask, ask.