Hi everybody,
I need a bit of advice. I'm going to give a demo about mediawiki to a few people used to deal with WYSIWYG type of editors. They are all smart enough to pick up wikitext no problem, but I'd like to be able to mention a few reasons about why they will have to deal with wikitext directly and not its formatted representation.
A few people who have gone through the same transition have told me that there is a bit of an initial code-phobia obstacle to overcome and I'd like to motivate the newcomers to go through that first obstacle to enjoy what's on the other side.
Any suggestion?
Thank you!
Manu
If I remember right there is a discussion on mw. You might find it searching on wysiwyg or similar (editor)
DSig David Tod Sigafoos | SANMAR Corporation PICK Guy "Go Green .. Move to the Dark Side"
-----Original Message----- From: mediawiki-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org [mailto:mediawiki-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Emanuele D'Arrigo Sent: Thursday, September 27, 2007 6:41 To: MediaWiki announcements and site admin list Subject: [Mediawiki-l] Wikitext
Hi everybody,
I need a bit of advice. I'm going to give a demo about mediawiki to a few people used to deal with WYSIWYG type of editors. They are all smart enough to pick up wikitext no problem, but I'd like to be able to mention a few reasons about why they will have to deal with wikitext directly and not its formatted representation.
A few people who have gone through the same transition have told me that there is a bit of an initial code-phobia obstacle to overcome and I'd like to motivate the newcomers to go through that first obstacle to enjoy what's on the other side.
Any suggestion?
Thank you!
Manu
On 9/27/07, Dave Sigafoos davesigafoos@sanmar.com wrote:
If I remember right there is a discussion on mw. You might find it searching on wysiwyg or similar (editor)
Thank you, I did find it here:
http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Talk:WYSIWYG_editor
It doesn't quite solve the problem though. On one hand there are the people asserting that What You See is What You Mean is the way to go because it's more precise and intercompatible. On the other there are those who favour What you See is What You Get for the like of newbies and non-technical people.
Indeed, as much as I'm perfectly comfortable continuing with wikitext myself, I do not think that precision and intercompatibility are highly valued priorities for non-technical people. They should have the choice of a WYSIWYG editor but their needs are not catered for and no motivation valuable -to them- is provided for this missing feature set.
I'll do my best to convince my non-technical colleagues that it's simple and that they just need to go over the first impact to enjoy it. But I can see how in some companies and for some people this won't be enough to be happy about it.
Thanks again Dave!
Ciao!
Manu
Hi Emanuele,
When I am teaching people HTML or wikitext, I like to let people know up front that it will require a little more brain-power than they are used to with Word and similar, but that they will have a ton more control over the final outcome if they stick to the slightly more technical method.
I just talked to one of our wiki editors who is an expert in her field, but not exactly a tech expert. She said she really liked using the wikitext, for links especially, since she didn't have to break her train of thought to make the link. She said she was more afraid of creating or changing a page which would affect the whole wiki structure than nervous about using wikitext.
I think you should stick to the basics in your introduction and as your users come to more advanced problems show them more wikitext. I don't think someone who has never written html tables could understand wikitables on their first day.
Good luck! I don't think you will have as much phobia to overcome as you think, some of them might even find it fun.
-Courtney
Christensen, Courtney wrote:
When I am teaching people HTML or wikitext, I like to let people know up front that it will require a little more brain-power than they are used to with Word and similar, but that they will have a ton more control over the final outcome if they stick to the slightly more technical method.
Even with Word, if you really want it to do what you want, you have to turn on the option to display formatting tags so you can see why Word is messing up what seems to be so straightforward (blanks vs tabs, new line vs new paragraph etc). I don't care what I see if it's not what I want - but then I used markup systems before I ever used a WYSIWYG editor.
Mike
<g> and even with wiki you have PREVIEW to see what the heck it is you did <G>
DSig David Tod Sigafoos | SANMAR Corporation PICK Guy
-----Original Message----- From: mediawiki-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org [mailto:mediawiki-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Michael Daly Sent: Thursday, September 27, 2007 14:31 To: MediaWiki announcements and site admin list Subject: Re: [Mediawiki-l] Wikitext
Christensen, Courtney wrote:
When I am teaching people HTML or wikitext, I like to let people know
up
front that it will require a little more brain-power than they are
used
to with Word and similar, but that they will have a ton more control over the final outcome if they stick to the slightly more technical method.
Even with Word, if you really want it to do what you want, you have to turn on the option to display formatting tags so you can see why Word is
messing up what seems to be so straightforward (blanks vs tabs, new line
vs new paragraph etc). I don't care what I see if it's not what I want - but then I used markup systems before I ever used a WYSIWYG editor.
Mike
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Thank you to Dave, Courtney and Michael for your contributions to this thread.
I like Courtney's suggestion especially, about the fact that people accustomed with wikitext do not have to break their train of thoughts when adding links.
I remain a bit unsatisfied in terms of potential motivations for non-technical people to appreciate wikitext. I suspect that no matter what I tell them they'll remain unenthusiastic if not outright annoyed. Hopefully they'll help each other to go beyond that first uncomfortable step of learning something that from their point of view is code (no, it won't matter to them that actual code is far more complicated).
Again, thank you for your contribution guys, much appreciated!
Ciao!
Manu
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