On 3/28/07, Frederik Dohr fdg001@gmx.net wrote:
Hi Dave,
- There are many existing docs, some of which we would like to move
into MW.
You might try Word2MediaWikiPlus: http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Word2MediaWikiPlus I'm not sure whether it's capable of handling complex documents though.
If that doesn't work, you could always upload the existing files as Word documents to the wiki - though if they're more than a somewhat obsolete reference and still subject to frequent changes, that might be a somewhat cumbersome workaround.
- As we move forward we are looking to create a 'template' for the
various types of documents we have including Project Scope, Project Technical Design and Project Functional Design.
I have been looking at the docs and 'templates' and wonder if I have missed something. Is there an easy way to create a 'template' (a complete page with all tables, headings etc create) and then when you want a new page simply bring that document in instead of the blank edit panel
You mean page transclusion? Or preloading newly-created pages with content? Both is possible. I don't know much about about preloading (there's an extension though: http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Preloader), but template transclusion is relatively easy:
Just create a page, e.g. [[Template:Hint]] and add some content to it. Then simply add {{Hint}} to another page, and all that's in [[Template:Hint]] will automatically be used in this page as well. You can also have parameters and complex conditions - take a look at the help pages for that (http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:Template).
- As we all know, change can be a very intimidating thing. With this
in mind we are looking for ways to be able to edit, especially new documents, with some form of WYSIWYG type editor. Is there any that have been used successfully with MW? Any stories that you would like to share on how you use these
There's a couple of options available, though none of those are flawless AFAIK: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WYSIWYG I'd also read the following (blog) articles on the topic - though that info might be outdated by now:
http://www.librarywebchic.net/wordpress/2006/05/01/installing-a-wysiwyg-edit...
http://www.librarywebchic.net/wordpress/2006/05/25/adding-a-wysiwyg-editor-t...
On a personal note, I'd actually prefer a sort of syntax highlighting to "real" WYSIWYG/WYSIWYM (i.e. still displaying the wiki syntax, but also formatted accordingly). That'd make it easier to edit complex pages without ceding control, and it'd also make it easier for beginners to learn about the wiki syntax from existing pages.
- One of our documents is really a large spreadsheet. This works well
for the data analysis. But I am wondering how MW will handle a large table. This might be something better to store in a secondary page and link from the 'Data Analysis' heading page
Not sure whether a wiki is the right environment for working with spreadsheets; editing large and complex table with wiki markup can be ... challenging. (Not to mention that spreadsheet-like calculations are not yet possible.)
You may have a try with wikicalc: http://www.softwaregarden.com/wkcalpha/
I hope these questions are not outside of the scope of this list. If
you prefer I will be happy to take all questions, comments off line
Nope, they're just the right kinda questions for this list - and some have in fact been discussed here before; take a look at the MediaWiki-l archives (translation: RTFA ;) ).
HTH.
-- F.
MediaWiki-l mailing list MediaWiki-l@lists.wikimedia.org http://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-l