Wikis

• If you don't know what a wiki is, search around on the web and find out.
• Watch these videos (required):
  • Wiki: Add and edit pages
  • Add links to a wiki page
• If you're interested in putting pictures on your wiki page, then also view these (optional):
  • Add an image to a wiki page
  • Post a file in Oncourse Resources
• In the Oncourse Wiki tool, find the "Sandbox" page and use it to practice formatting a wiki page.
• Wikis summarizes the most important wiki tools and markup syntax for the Oncourse wiki
• Wiki resources provides links to other information (tutorial and reference materials).

HTML

This is a brief preview of material I'll present in class. The coursepack, chapter 8, contains detailed notes on this subject. The textbook by Snyder, Chapter 4, also provides details.

• Each different wiki has a different markup syntax. For example, ~~italics~~ in the Oncourse wiki might be *italics* in another wiki.
• Wikis translate markup into the universal language of web pages: HTML—HyperText Markup Language.
• Word processors usually are WYSIWYG ("What you see is what you get"), but Wiki editors usually are not, and editing raw HTML is even more strange.
  • You can edit HTML in any text editor, like Notepad++
  • Or you can use a special HTML editor, such as Kompozer or Adobe Dreamweaver.
• While professional web page developers do need a detailed knowledge of HTML, most of us do not.
• Nevertheless, we ought to understand a little about HTML, because it's the language that the web page is ultimately coded in. Doing so can help us understand the common structure behind all wiki editors.