This isn't the answer you're looking for, but here's what worked at my organization. When we rolled out MediaWiki, the big message to the team was:
"Just type."
Put blank lines between your paragraphs and click Save. That's it.
That`s exactly my current approach :) 'Keep it simple, don`t try to overformat things, be willing to delete a 100lines ones they get inaccurate or obsolete.'
And if you WANT to do formatting, here's a cheatsheet. But don't let that stand in the way of documenting what you know.
And we also have that one :)
Then we have a few motivated people who scurry around improving the formatting on other people's pages as they run across them.
ok, there we currently have only just ONE, but we`re working on it :)
It worked out well, even with the WYSIWYG die-hards.
It works here - but only with the pure technical staff (and even some of those guys are quite hard to change).
The bad things are: - users without basic wikicode expirience see wikicode mingled with content (inline links, formatting etc) and their initial reaction is 'i cannot read that - it`s too complicated', which is - although a purely psychological problem - a major factor with my users: 'if it does not behave like M$ Word, i cannot use it'. (Imagine a 'normal user' opening a page containing tables in edit-mode... ok, i`ve banned the use of tables, but even the little things like '===' or '*' come quite hard to most of them. - lacking ability to abstract content from design and/or the will to do so or to even try.
So i`m looking for a way to 'lower the bar'.
DanB
nevertheless: thanks :) dwe
As for the original question of WYSIWYG for MW, I'm afraid I can't provide any more substantial info - except maybe suggesting wikEd* as a possible semi-solution. * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Cacycle/wikEd
The issue will apparently be discussed at this week's meeting on the future of MediaWiki (see yesterday's mail from Erik, "Your thoughts on MediaWiki 2.0 / 'phase IV'").
In this regard, here's some food for thought that might be of interest: http://wikieducator.org/Talk:Tectonic_shift_think_tank#WikiGUI
"Just type."
Put blank lines between your paragraphs and click Save. That's it.
That`s exactly my current approach :) Keep it simple, don`t try to overformat things
Actually, I should add this line to our wiki. It was obvious to me, so I took it for granted - but it most likely isn't for the majority of first-time wiki users...
And if you WANT to do formatting, here's a cheatsheet. But don't let that stand in the way of documenting what you know.
And we also have that one :)
So do we, but ours could certainly be improved. However, pulling the help pages from public wikis proved complicated because of various dependency issues. Also, those help pages are often quite extensive and might thus be somewhat overwhelming, so I went for a less comprehensive and more concise approach.
Would you guys mind sharing your cheat sheets? Maybe we could combine efforts at http://scratchpad.wikia.com, possibly cerating a (very basic) help-section template for new MW admins?
Then we have a few motivated people who scurry around improving the formatting on other people's pages as they run across them.
ok, there we currently have only just ONE, but we`re working on it :)
Same here; I'm the only "wiki coach", and reception hasn't really been overwhelming so far...
It worked out well, even with the WYSIWYG die-hards.
It works here - but only with the pure technical staff (and even some of those guys are quite hard to change).
Again, same here; most users with a non-technical background are scared off by the plain-text editing right away, so they don't even get to realize how easy it actually is...
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problem - a major factor with my users: 'if it does not behave like M$ Word, i cannot use it'. (Imagine a 'normal
Take a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Cacycle/wikEd for 'wysiwyg'-like editing - and copy'n'paste from word or any other ms-tool.
hth, bene
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