Wiki Server
This week I'll be talking about the WOU wiki server
How do I get to the wiki server?
Just go to "http://www.wou.edu/wiki. Go ahead and bookmark that address; if the server is ever moved, we will make sure that address will still go to the right place. Our wiki server software is called "TWiki".
What do I do when I get there?
First, just take a look around the main page without clicking any links. One of the first things you may notice is the "WelcomeGuest" link; don't click it just yet, though. Notice that it is made up of capitalized words run together. Any word like this is a "WikiWord" and is automatically shown as a link to another document. Read the paragraph following the link for a very brief introduction.
The next thing to look at is the sidebar to the left. It will be useful for major navigation; if you ever want to get back to this starting page, find the Main link in the sidebar. The sidebar changes depending on where you are, so the Main link may be in different places in it, but will usually be near the bottom, in the list of webs.
What is a "web"? Is it the same as a website?
No, actually. A "web" is the term TWiki uses for a collection of related documents. Many other wiki servers refer to this as a "wiki", and that is what I called it in the general wiki FAQ. You can jump from web to web using the sidebar; the top of the sidebar always lists the name of the web you are currently in, the bottom of the sidebar lists all available webs, and the middle of the sidebar holds links relevant to that particular web. Later we'll get to the different webs and what they are; for now, all you need to remember is how to get back to the Main web.
So how can I start using the wiki server?
The first thing you should do is register a WikiName. This is basically a WikiWord that refers to a user account on the wiki server. Without one, you can look around, but can't edit.
OK, How do I register a WikiName?
If you aren't on the home page of the Main web, click the Main link in the sidebar now. After that, you should see a Register link near the top of the sidebar. Click it and you will see a simple registration form. For your WikiName, just use your first and last names run together; or some simple variation of that. Make sure it is a valid WikiWord; i.e. that it starts with a capital letter and that there is at least one capital letter in the middle; for example "JimSmith" is a valid WikiWord, but "jimsmith", "Jimsmith", "jimSmith", "JIMSmith", and "JIMSMITH" are not. If you have a common name, you might want to hurry up and register it before somebody else does! If your name has already been taken, try including your middle initial, either capital or lowercase.
UPDATE: As of June 2006, you must also provide a valid WOU login to register a WikiName.
Right, I filled out the form, so what next?
Assuming you didn't get any errors when you filled out the form, you should be at a "Thank you for registering" page. The first link on it is your WikiName; click on it to go to your personal topic. This is your own document; you can put whatever information you want about yourself here. When you edit another document, it will be signed with your WikiName, so when other users look at it, they will see a link to your personal document. Right now, that document should be pretty generic; let's jazz it up a bit.
How do I do that?
Look in the upper left of the page; you should see a link called Edit. This is the most important link on the wiki server; every document has one. Click it now, and you will see the edit screen for your document.
There's a lot of strange hieroglyphics in there. What do I do?
You can ignore the complicated stuff for now. Start out by deleting any items in the top list you don't want; for instance, if you left out all the optional fields in the registration form, you can delete things like the Company Name, Company URL, and Comment lines near the top. Feel free to add any other text you want; people are going to get a link to this page whenever you edit something, so how about giving them a greeting, and say al bit about who you are?
What if I want to do more than just plain text?
Look for some quick formatting help at the bottom of the page. That should cover the basics; if you want more, see the "More formatting help" and "hints on good style" links at the bottom. You can also include most HTML tags, if you are familiar with that language; however, you don't need any HTML knowledge at all to edit a wiki document!
OK, I'm done. What now?
Click the Preview button on the lower right. This shows you what your document will look like. If you want to make more changes, use your browser's Back button to return to the editing screen. Feel free to bounce back and forth between the edit page and the preview page as many times as you need to get your document looking the way you want it. When you are done, click Save on either screen. (Note: users of some browsers may get an error the first time you save a document; just click the Back button in your browser and save again and it should be fine.)
What were those other options near the save button?
We'll cover most of those in a later FAQ, but you do need to know about one of them: the "Release edit lock" checkbox. When you are editing a document and some other user also tries to edit it, they get an error message saying that the document is locked. The document stays locked for an hour after you save it, in case you want to re-edit it quickly (for instance, if you noticed a typo you missed while previewing the document.)
However, for public documents, it's good manners to release the edit lock when you are sure you are done. To do this, check that checkbox before clicking Save. It's OK not to do that on your own document, though, which is why I didn't tell you about this before I said to hit Save.
Wait, doesn't that mean that anyone else can edit my document after an hour? I thought it was my own personal document?
Yes, you are right: anyone can edit your document. That's what the wiki server is all about. Don't panic, though; if you want, you can protect your personal document so you are the only one who can edit it.
How do I do that?
Go back and edit your document again. Look down near the bottom of the edit box, and find the line that says "Set ALLOWTOPICCHANGE = ". Type your WikiName after the equals sign, so the line now reads "Set ALLOWTOPICCHANGE = JimSmith" (or whatever your WikiName is.)
All right, now what?
Now that you know the basics, it's time to play around with the system a bit. The place to do this is called the Sandbox; click the Sandbox web link to get there. Students, you have a tag board topic to say whatever you want. Faculty and staff, click on the OfficeList link, and feel free to add your office here. Look at the UniversityComputingServices document for ideas. Don't worry about producing a finished document; just get started, and save when you feel like it (don't forget to release the edit lock!) Someone else will come along and add more; that's what the wiki server is for.
Also, anybody can edit the Sandbox itself to add new topics; just type a WikiWord in the document's edit screen. After you save, you'll see that WikiWord with a question mark beside it, meaning that the actual document doesn't exist yet; just click the question mark to create it and go to its edit screen.
Where can I get more information?
TWiki has lots of help and tutorial documents available. Click on the TWiki link in the sidebar for a list. I recommend the TWikiTutorial as a good place to start.