Using Wikis Student Guide

Transcription

1 Using Wikis Student Guide Library and Learning Support 1. Overview 9. Creating anchors and anchors links 2. Accessing a wiki in mybu 10. Inserting images 3. The wiki page 11. Uploading and embedding videos 4. Navigating a wiki 12. Uploading and attaching other files 5. Editing a wiki page 13. HTML editing 6. The text editor 14. Tagging 7. Creating a new page 15. Page history 8. Creating links 16. Further support 1. Overview This guide covers basic instructions for viewing and editing Wikis within mybu. For further information about basic wiki concepts view Wikis in Plain English on Youtube: 2. Accessing wikis in mybu Wikis must first be created within your unit by your lecturer. Once available, you can identify a wiki by the orange page icon and click the View link to access the wiki. 3. The wiki page The main Wiki page: Wiki search Wiki title and Home URL. Wiki tag cloud Wiki page menu Add new page Wiki page title Edit page Delete page Add/Edit tags Comments Page contributors View History (Appears once more than one edit has occurred). Activity list Page views mybu Using Wikis Page 1 of 8

2 4. Navigating a wiki Most wiki sites will have links within the main body of text that will allow you to move from page to page. However to view a list of all pages click on the Pages button to expand the page list. You can then navigate by click on a page title. Clicking on the Pages button again will hide the page list. 5. Editing a wiki page 1. Navigate to the wiki page that you wish to edit (you can use the Pages menu to list all pages). 2. Click on the Edit button, this will be located on the right hand side of the wiki page title. 3. The wiki page will open in edit view. You can now edit the page using the text editor. 4. Click the Save to save and exit the edit view. Please note: Whilst multiple users can work on separate pages within a wiki, only one user can edit one wiki page at a time. If you try and edit a page that is already being edited you will see a message stating who is editing the page and the time that the editing began. 6. The Text editor The Wiki tool uses a standard text editor for authoring pages. The editor is available when either creating a new page or editing an existing page. Page title Text colour Text background colour Remove text formatting Cut / copy / paste Use shortcuts: Cut: CTRL+V Copy: CTRL+C Paste: CTRL+V Main text Toggle HTML view Insert link to page or URL Insert image Insert / embed video Attach file Insert page anchor Insert table Tip 1: Text formatting and pasting The text editor has basic features for text formatting including heading formats, font choice, font size, font decoration (bold, italics, colour etc ), justification and bullet/numbered lists. You will also find that when you paste formatted text from other sources such as Word documents and web pages it will do a reasonable job of recreating the text styles. Sometimes when pre-formatted text is pasted into the editor it may behave unexpectedly i.e. odd size, colour. If this occurs, highlight the text and press the Remove text formatting button ( which you can then re-apply using the text editor features. ). This will remove the formatting Library and Learning Services Page 2 of 8

3 Tip 2: Editing items in the text editor If you have added an item such as an image, table, or a link and wish to re-edit the item to change its properties, all you need to do is highlight or select the item in the text editor and then press the button in the text editor that you used to add it originally. E.g. You need to change an existing link to open in a new window. Therefore highlight the link text, press the link button in the text editor and then check the box to set it to open in a new window. 7. Creating a new page 1. From within the wiki click New Page, located at the top of the left hand column. (If you do not see this button then contact the IT Service Desk, further information on the mybu Help tab.) 2. This will open your new page in editing view. Add your page title and content. 3. Click the Save to save and exit the edit view. You can now navigate to your new page either by clicking the page title under the Pages menu. Note: Pages can also be created directly from the Insert Link page. 8. Creating links Links can be created for: External websites (URL) Page anchors Existing wiki pages New wiki pages Use the following steps to create a link: 1. Open a wiki page in the editing view (so you can see the text editor). 2. Highlight the text you wish to turn into a link by holding the left mouse button and dragging across the chosen text. 3. Click the Insert/Edit Link button in the text editor ( ). 4. Select the type of link you wish to add: Link to an external web site (URL) o Enter the address for the webpage you wish to link to, make sure to include the http: o Note: When linking to an external site it is good practice to set it to Open in a new window. Link to an anchor o Select an anchor from the drop down box. If this box is empty then you will need to first create an anchor to link to, this is covered in the next section Creating anchors and anchor links. Link to an existing page (Wiki page) o Click to highlight an existing page from the list. Link to a new page o Enter the new page name and click Submit. The new page will now be created. Click on the link you just create to go straight to the new page. 5. If you wish your link to open in a new window (advisable for External Websites) then tick Open in a new window. 6. Click Submit. Library and Learning Services Page 3 of 8

4 9. Creating anchors and anchor links An anchor allows a link to be added that will take the reader to a different part of the page. This is useful for navigation when creating long pages that contain multiple sections. Create an anchor: 1. From the wiki page editing view, place the cursor at the part of the page to which you wish to link. 2. Click the anchor button ( ). 3. Name the Anchor. 4. Click Insert. Link to an anchor 1. Highlight the text you wish to turn into a link by holding the left mouse button and dragging across the chosen text. 2. Click the Insert Link button in the text editor, which looks like a chain link ( ). Under Anchor select the anchor you wish to link to from the drop down menu. 3. Click Insert. 10. Inserting images You can either upload an image or provide a hyperlink to an image on another web server. To insert a local image: 1. From the editing view, click on the Insert Image button ( ) 2. Browse ( ) to locate the image you wish to upload. 3. Enter an image description and title 4. Click Insert to add the image. To insert an external image: 1. From within the editing view, click on the Add Image button ( ). 2. Enter the URL of the image you wish to embed in your wiki into the Source field. 3. Enter an image description. 4. Click the Insert button to add the image. Library and Learning Services Page 4 of 8

5 11. Uploading and embedding videos Video files can be uploaded directly from your computer or you can embed the video from a service like YouTube. It is generally advisable to not upload videos and instead embed videos via a site like YouTube, this will provide more reliable video playback and the controls will be more familiar to the viewer. Uploading a video Set your cursor to where you want the video to appear and click the Insert/Edit Video button. Now click the Source file upload icon, then browse to you video and click Submit. Embedding a video (recommended) 1. You must first go to the video hosting site and collect the embed code. For YouTube, locate your video (you ll need to upload it first if it s not already on YouTube). 2. Now click the Share link below the video and then click the Embed link. 3. Copy the Embed code to your clip board (CTRL+C) 4. From the edit view of your wiki page, set your cursor to where you want the video to appear and click the Insert/Edit Video button in the text editor. Library and Learning Services Page 5 of 8

6 5. Select the Embed tab and paste your embed code. 6. Click OK. The embedded video will appears as a grey box in Edit view but when you save the page the video will displayed. Library and Learning Services Page 6 of 8

7 12. Uploading and attaching other files You can attach any file (i.e. pdf,.docx,.ppt etc ) as a link using the Upload File button. 1. From the editing view click the Upload File button ( ). 2. Click Choose file. 3. Click Submit. A link to the file will now be created using the file name. 13. HTML editing Wiki pages created in the editor are saved as HTML code. You can view and edit the HTML code directly by clicking tag icon ( ) in the text editor toolbar. Note: This feature can be used to provide advanced control over the page formatting but does requires prior knowledge of HTML coding. If you edit the HTML and make a mistake you can use the Page History to undo changes. 14. Tagging By adding tags which describe the content of individual wiki pages, the wiki can show a tag cloud to reveal the popularity of common themes across the entire wiki. The most commonly used tags will appear with a larger font size within the tag cloud. The tag cloud can be found within the right hand column of the wiki. A wiki page s tags are located directly below the wiki page body text. 1. To edit the tags click on the Edit link below the wiki page body text. 2. Add your tags, separated by commas. 3. Click Submit. Library and Learning Services Page 7 of 8

8 15. Page history Once a page has been edited more than once you can view the page history in the Edited By section which is situated below the main body text. Each time a wiki page is edited and then Saved, a separate version of the wiki page is created, all of these versions can be viewed individually and restored if necessary. You can also compare two separate versions side by side. To view, restore or compare page versions, use the following instructions: 1. Navigate to a wiki page. 2. Click on the link in the Edited By section (below the main body text). 3. Each saved version of the wiki page will listed with the username and date and time of the change. To View a version, click on the version and click View. To Restore a version, click on the version you wish to view then click Restore. To compare two versions Click on the one of the versions that you wish to compare, hold down SHIFT and click on the second version that you wish to compare, this should highlight two rows in grey. Now click Compare. 16. Further support All mybu queries should be reported to the IT Service Desk on Library and Learning Services Page 8 of 8