Basics+for+Wikis

Wikispaces for Education

 * EASTCONN Wikis**
 * Motivating the Plugged In Generation
 * Spice It Up a Notch! Nutmeg Books 2008
 * EASTCONN Tech Council
 * EASTCONN SMART Users Group

View Information on Educational Wikis at EduWikis

Look at Examples of Educational Wikis in Education

Create your Wiki at: [|100,000 Wikis in the Classroom]

**Spaces** A wikispace is a space of your own typically used for one purpose or devoted to one topic. Each space can hold many pages, files, and images. Help for Teachers

** Editing Spaces **
There are several changes you can make to your space as a whole. ** Changing the space logo ** For a space that you've created, you can change our funny little bonsai tree logo as follows: Changing the space's background color ** For a space that you are an organizer of, you can change the background color as follows: =Pages= To create a new page within the current space, use the "Make a New Page" link in the sidebar or just create a link to the new page in the editor. When you create a space, you'll start with one blank page called home. Click "edit" to add content to that page. Note that the "Make a New Page" link will only be present if you are a registered user and have logged in. Page names may not contain:
 * In the 'Actions' menu on the left, click 'Manage Space'.
 * In the 'Space Settings' section on the page, click 'Look and Feel'
 * In the 'Logo' section in the page, click the 'Browse' button
 * Browse your hard drive for the image you want to use (jpg, png, or gif, recommended size: 140 x 48 pixels)
 * Click the 'Save' button
 * In the 'Actions' menu on the left, click 'Manage Space'.
 * In the 'Space Settings' section on the page, click 'Look and Feel'
 * In the 'Name, Background Color, Description' section in the page, in the "Color #" text field, enter the HTML color code of your desired background color. You can see which codes are for which color here: http://www.webmonkey.com/webmonkey/reference/color_codes/
 * Creating Pages**
 * What characters are not allowed in page names?**
 * ^ caret
 * : colon
 * | pipe or vertical bar
 * / forward slash
 * [ left square bracket
 * ] right square bracket
 * { left curly bracket
 * } right curly bracket
 * $ dollar sign
 * + plus sign
 * # number sign
 * @ at-symbol

Each editable page on Wikispaces has an "edit" button at the top of the page. Click on the "edit" 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. The editor has a visual mode and a plain text mode. ** 1. What's the visual editor? ** Wikispaces' 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. Javascript is required for this editor. ** 2. What's the text editor? ** The text editor allows you to edit the raw wikitext of a page. ** 3. How do I switch between the two editor modes? ** When in the visual editor, click "Use Text Editor" to switch to text mode. When in the text editor, click "Use Visual Editor" to switch to visual mode. You can set your default editor mode in your "My Account" page. ** 4. What's the difference between the 'edit' button and the 'edit navigation' link? ** The edit link at the top of the page edits the page that you are currently viewing. Each page can be thought of as a document within your space. Your documents can be linked together. The edit navigation link on the left edits the content that appears in the Navigation bar on each page. That content is intended to be sort of an index for the site so that your users can easily move around in the space. Creating links between pages is easy in both the visual editor and the plain text editor. In the visual editor, highlight the text you wish to link and click the earth icon in the toolbar to add a new link. In both the visual editor and the plain text editor, you can add a link by enclosing a word in double square brackets. You can always make links to other web pages by just typing the url, for example: [|http://wikispaces.com.] To remove a link in the visual editor, put the cursor in the link, or highlight the link, and hit the broken link earth icon
 * Editing Pages **
 * Linking Pages **

Space organizers can lock pages. A locked page cannot be edited by anyone other than a space organizer. To lock a page in your space:
 * Locking Pages **
 * Click "Manage Space"
 * Click "List Pages"
 * Click "lock" next to the page you want to lock.

To print a page in your space: ** Deleting and Renaming Pages ** To delete or rename a page in your space:
 * Printing Pages **
 * Click "Manage Space"
 * Click "List Pages"
 * Click "print" next to the page you want to print to bring up a printable view of the page
 * Use your web browser's print function to print the page
 * Click "Manage Space"
 * Click "List Pages"
 * Click "delete" or "rename" next to the page you want to delete or rename.

Each time someone edits a page, we take a visual snapshot of the changes so you can see in a glance how much has changed. Was it one line or the whole page? Click on 'history' at the top of any page to see all changes. Then click on the screenshot to the left of each entry to see a visual representation of the changes.
 * Page History **

You can also compare any two versions of a page by clicking "select for comparison" on one version of a page and then "compare to selected" on another.

We keep every version of every page and make it easy for members to revert back to a previous copy. You'll never have to worry about losing changes or being stuck with a new bad version of a page if someone makes a mistake. Every time a page is edited on Wikispaces, we save the previous version so that you can go back to a previous version if you don't like the new change. In fact, we save every version of every page on the site.
 * Reverting Pages **

Reverting a page lets you restore the content on a page that existed at any previous point in time. It's not to be done lightly, but can be very helpful if a page has been vandalized or to undo editing mistakes.

To revert a page: When you revert a page, please enter a comment that explains why you reverted the page. Note that you must be logged in to revert pages. Instead of creating new pages from scratch, you can choose to make new pages based on a set of template pages that you create. To make a new template, go to 'Manage Space' and 'Manage Templates'. Choose a name for your new template, and you'll then be able to edit the content of the template like a normal wiki page. To make a new page based on one of your templates, click 'Make New Page' and select the template to start from. You can include pictures and files in your pages easily using the visual editor. When in the visual editor: Deleting and Renaming Pictures and Files ** To delete files and pictures in your space: ** Embedding Media and HTML ** When editing any Wikispaces page, you'll see a button on the toolbar that looks like a television. Click it, and paste the HTML from any embeddable web service in the box. On the left side of each page in your space, you'll see a "Navigation" section which you can edit by clicking the "edit navigation" link under the Navigation section.
 * click on 'history' on top of the page you want to revert
 * select the version you would like to go back to, by clicking on the revision in the date column
 * click 'revert to this version' at the top of the page
 * enter a comment and click the Revert button
 * Page Templates **
 * Including Pictures and Files **
 * 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
 * Make sure you are an organizer of the space
 * Click "Manage Space"
 * Click "List Files"
 * Click "delete" or "rename" next to the file you want to delete or rename.
 * Navigation Bar **

The content you put on this special page 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.

It's also just 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. To edit the Navigation Bar: If you need a space deleted: Or, if you can't login for some reason just email us with the name of the space. Make sure you email us from the email address you registered with so that we know it's you.
 * Click on the "Edit Navigation" link on the left side of your page.
 * You will go to your "space.menu" page.
 * List the page names 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 an Earth in the toolbar.
 * Save the page.
 * Deleting Spaces **
 * In the 'Actions' menu on the left, click 'Manage Space'
 * Under 'Space Settings' click 'Delete This Space'

The difference between a space Member and a space Organizer is that organizers can
 * Members and Organizer **
 * invite other members to the space and remove members from a space
 * change the permissions of a space from public to protected to private
 * change the name, description, look and feel, theme and stylesheet of a space
 * delete pages and uploaded files
 * lock and unlock pages
 * Adding members to a space **
 * 1) Go to your space homepage (e.g. http://yourspace.wikispaces.com/)
 * 2) Click on "Manage Space" under the "Actions" section in the left menu bar.
 * 3) Click on "Members and Permissions" under the "Space Settings" section
 * 4) Under the "Invite a New Member" section, enter either the Wikispaces username or the Email Address of the person you wish to add to your space. (Note: If you are unsure whether the person you wish to invite already has a Wikispaces account, or if you are unsure what the person's Wikispaces user name is, enter an email address that you know belongs to the person instead.)
 * 5) The person you invite will receive an email notification and once they accept, they will be a member of your space.
 * 6) You will then be able to manage their membership status on your "Members and Permissions" page.