Wikis

=__**Wikis**__= Wikis have been made popular by the online encyclopedia, Wikipedia. Wikis come from a Hawaiian word meaning "fast". A **wiki** is a website that uses wiki software, allowing the easy creation and editing of any number of interlinked Web pages, using a simplified markup language or a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) text editor. Wikis are used as collaborative websites. They are useful for the business sector as well as education.

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This Powerpoint gives step-by-step instructions on how to work with a wiki.

__**Additional Internet Resources**__
http://coe.sdsu.edu/eet/articles/wikis/index.htm http://teaching-with-technology.wikispaces.com/Wikis+in+Education http://21stcenturylearning.wetpaint.com/ http://learnatschool08.wikispaces.com/ http://stjosephsoamaru.wikispaces.com/ http://room3tai.wikispaces.com/ https://manuka2008.wikispaces.com/ http://nelsoncentral.wikispaces.com/ http://fendalton.wikispaces.com/ http://room1rps.wikispaces.com/ http://wikidstuff.wikispaces.com/ http://rosetown.wikispaces.com/

**What can I do with my Wikispace?**
Wikispaces is very flexible and you can do many things with it, whether in your classroom, company, or community group. As an educator, you can use your wikispace to post homework assignments, facilitate a classroom project, collaborate with an international classroom, communicate with parents or other teachers, or provide a space for classroom discussion and feedback. As a business, you can use Wikispaces to organize schedules or projects, build an Intranet, or create a forum to interact with your customers. As a non-profit, Wikispaces can help you organize activities and collaborate with various levels of your organization, share documents and resources with co-workers, and engage your members and volunteers.

**How do I create a Wikispaces account?**
Go to http://www.wikispaces.com. In the "Join Now" box, put in your username, password, e-mail address, and, optionally, space name. Click "Join" and you're done. If you've chosen to create a space, you will be taken straight to your new space.

If you are an educator, learn how to create your new space here. If you have any problems creating your account, try our troubleshooting section.

How do I edit a page?[[image:2.png]]
Each editable page on Wikispaces has an "Edit This Page" button at the top of the page. Sometimes the button will look slightly different or be in a different place but it should always be easily recognized. Click on this button to bring up the page editor. The page editor allows you to add text and pictures to a page and to format that page. What is the difference between the "visual" editor and "text" editor? The Wikispaces editor has a visual mode and a plain text mode. The visual editor lets you see the final look and feel of a page before you save it. It's just like using a word processor. The text editor allows you to edit the raw wikitext of a page. It's useful when you want to get under the hood and tinker. We support the visual editor in Internet Explorer 6 and 7, Firefox 1.5 and 2.0. If your browser does not support the visual editor we will automatically load the text editor for you. Click here to learn more about working in the Text Editor.

How can I format text?
When you are in the Edit mode for a page, you will see options on the toolbar at the top of the page. You can bold, italicize, underline, and bullet text; format text in various headings; or add a horizontal line break to your page. You can also change the font, color, alignment, or size of your text. To learn more about this, see the following section.

Click "Edit This Page." Highlight the text you wish to change Go to the text formatting icon in the toolbar. Here you will have the option to change the font style, font size and color, the background color for the font, or the alignment of the text.
 * Can I change the color or size of text on my wiki page?** Wikispaces gives you the ability to format the font, color, and size of text on your page as well as to align text. To do so,

How do I add a symbol to my page?
If you would like to add a special character to the page, such as a Euro sign € or superscript number ⁷, click "Edit This Page" and click on the Special Character icon in the toolbar.

How do I add or remove a link on my page?
Click "Edit This Page." Highlight the text you wish to link and click the earth icon in the toolbar to add a new link. Another window will come up with an option to create a link to a page in your space or to another website or wikispace. If you create a link to a page which hasn't yet been edited, the page name will be red. If the page already exists, the page name will appear green. To remove a link in the visual editor, put the cursor on the link, or highlight the link, and hit the broken link earth icon.

How do I edit a link already on my page?
Click "Edit This Page." Double click the link you wish to edit. The link tool will pop up and you can change your link there. How do I add a link to a place within my page? You can do this by adding an anchor to your page. To learn more about how these work, see our wikitext anchor section.

How do I spell check my work on the wiki?
Some browsers, including Firefox 2, have built in spell checkers, where misspelled words will be underlined in red. If you are using Internet Explorer, you can download a spell check browser extensions, such as ieSpell

How do I add an Image or File to My Page?
Click the image icon which looks like a tree in a box. Use the "Upload New File" or "External Image URL" dialog to select the image or file you wish to put on your page. Put the cursor at the position on the page where you wish to put the image or file. Double click the image or file to put it on the page. How do I resize images I have placed on my wiki? Click "Edit This Page." Click on the image you'd like to change. White squares will appear the edges of the photo. Click on a white square and drag it to resize the photo.

Can I upload multiple files at once?
Yes you can.

What types of files can I upload to my space? Wikispaces supports all file types. If you are a Mac user, there may be some items in your folders which look like files but are actually directories, such as the .band extension for GarageBand. We do not support these items for uploading. What is the maximum file size I can upload? We have different file upload sizes depending on your Wikispaces plan. To find out more about the different plan types, see our pricing page.

How do I delete or rename files?
Only space organizers can delete or rename files. To do this, Go to "Manage Space." Click on "List and Upload Files." Click "delete" or "rename" next to the file you want to delete or rename.

How do I place videos, calendars, or other media on my space?
We provide you with a way to embed videos, audio, calendars, and any other embeddable web service on to your page. Click "Edit This Page." Go to the embed widget button on the toolbar that looks like a television. Choose the type of media you would like to embed, such as YouTube or Google Calendar For each application, there will be instructions for copying the HTML from that application's site and pasting it in the widget tool's box. Once you have embedded the widget to your page, "Save" your page.

Can I place an audio or video file from my computer on to a page?
Yes. The process is the same as uploading any other file to your Wikispace.

What are Wikispaces Widgets?
We have designed special widgets that allow you to place dynamic content about your Wikispace on your page. This content includes most frequent editors, the discussion threads for a particular page, the page history, and your space's tag cloud. You can now easily place them on your Wikispace by going to the embed widget tool on the toolbar. In the embed tool, choose "Wikispaces." Choose the Wikispaces Widget you would like to add to your page. Customize the widget as you would like, such as setting the specific page that you will add. "Embed" the widget into your page. "Save" your page.

How do I change media or code I have embedded on the page?
Click "Edit This Page." Double click the media box you'd like to change. The embed widget tool will come up. Make any desired changes to the code.

How do I add a table to my wikipage?
You can create tables by clicking on the table image in the toolbar. After you specify the number of rows and columns for your table, click "Ok."

How do I make changes to my table?
If you would like to make any changes to your table after you have created it, click on a cell in the table. The table icon will appear on the edge of that cell. Click on that icon. Options for changing the alignment or heading for a cell, row, column, or the entire table will appear. You will also have the option to add or remove rows or columns or merge cells with each other. You can also choose to delete the entire table.

What is the "edit navigation" link?
The "edit navigation" link on the left edits the content that appears in the Navigation bar on each page in your space. The content you put here will show up on every page in your space. It's a nice way to have a common menu across all the pages in your space and is intended to be used as an index so that your users can easily move around in the space.

Will new pages I create automatically appear in the Navigation Bar?
By default, they will. If you haven't edited the navigation bar, when you create and edit a page, it will be listed in alphabetical order in the Navigation Bar. When you edit the Navigation Bar, you will be taken to your space.menu page. There you will see an "include pageList" box. If you delete it, your pages will no longer automatically appear in alphabetical order in your Navigation Bar. You can then custom your Navigation Bar as you would like.

How do I edit the Navigation Bar?
Click on the "Edit Navigation" link on the left side of your page. You will be editing your "space.menu" page. If you no longer want all of your pages to appear in alphabetical order in the Navigation Bar, delete the "include pageList" box. List the page names, or enter any other content, you want to appear in the Navigation Bar. Highlight each name and link it to its appropriate page by clicking on the button that looks like the Earth in the toolbar. Save the page. The space.menu page acts like any other wiki page meaning you can put in links, headings, images, lists - anything that can be on a normal page. The only difference is that bulleted lists will not have bullets displayed in order to preserve space.