Skills for Wikis

Developing skills for Wiki authoring

Many of the skills you need for Wiki authoring - eg, editing text - are similar to those you need for blogging. However, there are some features specific to wikis, and each wiki platform handles some of these features in its own way. These notes deal in particular with PBworks; other wiki platforms will work in a largely similar way, but watch out for the differences.

 

Starting

In PBworks:

• click on Create a page (at the top of the right-hand column)
• give the page a name (keep it fairly short), and do Create page
• start typing your text in the editing pane; use formatting, create links, include images (as in a blog platform)
• when you are ready to stop, click Save (bottom left of editing pane)

 

Link to another page

Link to a newly created page

• select the word or phrase you wish to act as a link
• click on the hyperlink button  (top row of editing toolbar)
• from the first drop-down menu, choose LInk type: PBworks page
• from the second drop-down menu, choose Page: New page
• give the new page a suitable Name
• click OK
• save the page you have been working on
• click on the 'New page' link you have just created
• click Create page

 

You can now start working on the new page

 

Link to an existing page

A good exercise to do at this point is to link back from your new page to your earlier one.

• follow the first 3 steps in the procedure above, then
• from the second drop-down menu, choose Page: select the page you wish to link to
• click OK
• Save the page you have been working on 

 

Link to an external page

First, collect the URL (web address) of the page you wish to link to - see the procedure outlined in the section on Linking on the Skills for blogging page

 

Then, in PBworks,

• follow the first 2 steps as above, but
• from the first drop-down menu, choose LInk type: URL
• Paste in the URL (Ctrl-V in Windows, Cmnd-V in Mac)
• decide whether you wish the linked page to Open in a new window
• Click OK

 

Including media

Annoyingly, PBworks does not have an Image button in its editing toolbar. In order to include an image you must follow one of these procedures:

 

Upload an image to PBworks

in the right-hand panel, under Insert links, Click on the Images and files tab

Click on Upload files

navigate to where your image is stored, and Select it

 

Link to an image that has been uploaded to PBworks

Click at the point in your text where you wish to insert the image

in the Images and files tab (right-hand panel), Click on the image file-name (you may have to scroll down to find it)

 

Link to an image on the web

find its web location, and collect its URL (see the note on this from the xxx page)

in the Images and files tab (right-hand panel), scroll down to the bottom of the list, and Click on Insert image from url

Paste in the URL for the image (which you Copied earlier)