Hi Dave,
1) 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.
2) 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).
3) 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info might be outdated by now: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-edi…
http://www.librarywebchic.net/wordpress/2006/05/25/adding-a-wysiwyg-editor-…
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.
4) 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.)
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.