I've been trying to bring the most relevant information on the usage of this Wiki into a brief form. The Wiki manuals will give you more detailed Information. Links to the specific sections are also provided. If there are more urgent questions of which you think they might be helpful if answered here, don't hesitate and note them down in the grey box below. If you know the answer yourself, just add a section, and make the information available for your colleagues.
What is a Wiki?
A wiki is a page or collection of Web pages designed to enable anyone who accesses it to contribute or modify content, using a simplified markup language. Wikis are often used to create collaborative websites and to power community websites. The Pages within a Wiki can and should be linked to other relevant pages within and/or outside the Wiki. The collaborative encyclopedia Wikipedia is one of the best-known wikis. Wikis are used in business to provide intranet and Knowledge Management systems. Ward Cunningham, the developer of the first wiki software, WikiWikiWeb, originally described it as "the simplest online database that could possibly work".
"Wiki" is a Hawaiian word for "fast". "Wiki" can be expanded as"What I Know Is..." but this is a backronym.
See also : What is a Wiki
Why should I use this?
The intention is to replace long monolithic documents by small -linked- information units . This makes it easier to navigate through large documents and find wanted information and further information.
Editing an article within a wiki is easy. This allows the wiki-users to keep information up to date, to correct articles published by other users or to add more relevant information to it by adding text or linking an other relevant article, or explanation.
E.g.: It is not necessary to explain in detail what options and strategies there are in solar cooking in different documents if it has been defined once and is now linked to the text. This prevents redundancy and allows users to concentrate on the topic ore to gain more surrounding information - as he or she likes.
If a page with specific content is linked to several pages, and the specific content is one that changes over time, the information must only be updated in one single document instead of all documents where it occurs. So if there were new technologies in solar cooking they could just be added to the document that already exists and the information would be available from all the documents that it is linked to.
More reasons for using wikis arise from the needs of knowledge- and project- management.
Besides storing and providing information a Wiki can be used as a tool for knowledge generation and allocation as well as a project planning tool. It also makes it possible for external personnel to access this information and see how the project proceeds. See also the short article project Wiki.
How do I create an article myself?
There are different options to create a new article.
You found a red link (also referred to as "wanted links") and you know something about the subject:
- click the red link
- Enter your text and press the save button
You are reading an article and you think it might be useful to add an article to a specific keyword:
- mark the word you want to add an article to
- create a link (which will be a red one)
- follow the instructions for redlinks above
You may add as many articles as you like but please:
- Always keep an eye on your unfinished articles and finish them soon
- If you want to try out things with the Wiki don't use pagenames like "test" or "mypage"...
May I edit articles published by other users?
The idea behind Wikis is, that users are enabled to work on documents collaboratively .
So: Yes of course you may do so! In turn others are allowed to edit your articles too. Please don't mind and see it as input into your own and our community's knowledge.
How do I edit articles?
To edit an article, just open it and click the "edit" button. "bearbeiten" for those who use the german version. After you have finished your editing click"preview" / "vorschau", and you will see how the article will now look like below the editing section. Changes will not be saved by then, so if anything goes completely wrong -> cancel. If you are happy with the new article push the "save" / "speichern" button.
How can I undo changes on articles?
The "history" button on top of the Wiki page allows you to see, who edited an article. You can then compare the article to older versions of it (in Wikitext), contact the person who changed it and/or undo changes if necessary.
How do I add a headline/section?
Headlines are also referred to as sections in Wiki. This is because every section can be edited seperately. Thus it is possible to edit two parts of one text at the same time. This can be very useful for example if you are working on a document in a group for example.
Headlines, as well as other formatting can be easily added via the Editor Bar of the Wiki.
Another option is to use the Wikitext for formatting. For some people Wikitext is a helpful addition to the editor. Headlines in Wikitext are created by the equals symbol. The count of "=" befeore and after the desired headline defines the headlines depth:
. = How do I edit articles? =
. ==How do I add a headline/section?==
would result in the headlines you see above. The second headline as a subsection of the first. You may forbear enumerating the headlines. This will be done automatically.
See the deatiled version of "Formatting" here.
How do I create tables?
A good idea can be to copy and paste a table from another page within the wiki and then adjust it to your specific needs.
To create a new table, there are different ways:
creation of a table with the editor
to create a table with the editor is easy and can be done intuitively.
- Click the "Draw Table" Button.
- Specify size and the numbers of rows an columns.
- Enjoy.
- Alter Cells or add/remove columns and rows via right click with your mouse.
See here the long version.
creation of a table with wikitext
creation of a table in Wikitext is not that easy. But once you know what you are doing it is a comfortable tool for editing tables. If you are interested, see here or just create one with the editor and see what changes in wikitext result in.
Hints:
- cellspacing describes the space between the cells in the tables in pixels
- cellpadding describes the space between the cells' borders and the text inside them
- width describes the tables width. Note that it is possible to give cells a specific width wich will be used for all the cells in a column
importing a table from MS Excel
The import of a table from MS Excel requires special handling. Please see here.
How do I create bullet points/ numbered lists?
The simple way is to use the editor bar.
- Highlight the lines you want to have bulleted or numbered
- click the button in the editor bar
File:Leiste 1.jpg
Bulletpoints and other formatting options are explained here.
How do I add links and downloads?
A link to other websites or articles can comfortably added with the editor:
- highlight the word(s) which you want to convert into a link
- click the"add/edit link" button
- insert the the link's adress into the appearing window an confirm. (Note: if you are linking an article within the wiki you don't have to insert the full adress. Just start typing the name of the wikipage and the tool will suggest you the pages within the wiki that begin with the letters you have already typed.)
- removing the link is just as easy, just doubleclick the link in edit mode and remove it with the"remove link" button
File:Leiste 2.jpg
See the detailed explanation.
How do I add pictures to my article?
Pictures may be added to all articles. But always keep in mind that our users in some countries have to get along with low data-transfer rates. Due to this, you should be sure not to add pictures of more than 100-150KB in size. This is a common size for pictures on Web pages. You can easily compress and/or downsize your pictures with the MS Office picture manager (which probably will be installed on all of your computers). To do so, open the pictured with the mentioned Program, then click ist with the right curser button and choose "edit pictures". On the right Hand side there will now appear some options, choose "compress pictures" and then optimize it for Websites.
After the picture has been modified into an acceptable format, upload it via the "Upload File" function in the Navigation Bar on the left hand side of EnDev.info.
You can now add the picture via the "Insert/Edit Image" Button, and adjust size and position of your picture.
See the detailed explanation.
How can I import a document from MS Word?
- copy the MS Word document
- click the pasteWord button in the editor bar and paste the table into the appearing window
- activate both checkboxes on the bottom of the window
- confirm
Then proceed as described at the "import from Excel" section above.
See also the detailed version. You can also use the Tool
Why are there strange symbols appearing in my document?
Probably you have simply copied and pasted a text from somewhere elso into the editor. If you did not read the eplanations for word and excel imports, please do that now. If You are trying to insert the document from somewhere else, (PDF or Webpages for example), it might be easier to copy the document into Wikitext and format it afterwards. You may always ask ***** or ***** for support.
more Questions?
- If you have a Question and you think the Answer might be helpful for others as well, fill in your questions here and will will answer them ASAP.
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