So being at-heart a consummate traitor, I've been toying around at Knol, and also at Google Sites and at Pbwiki. I was just updating a page tonight on my Knol user-page when I realized that Knol has a rather nice "table creator/editor". I've used it a few times, but it was always sort-of "blah whatever" until I had to tonight actually move cell-contents-with-their-associated-LINKS around in a table.
It was... quite simple, with no hidden problems. Can we not get that in the next MediaWiki upgrade go-round ? It would so simplify the beautification of tabular data and ease the transition for editors who can't quite get their minds wrapped around our current bizarre and unique table-coding. The number of editors we have who understand how to create and maintain in-wiki tables is quite minute, and this WYSIWIG editor just makes it all very transparent and easy.
Will Johnson
**************Psssst...Have you heard the news? There's a new fashion blog, plus the latest fall trends and hair styles at StyleList.com. (http://www.stylelist.com/trends?ncid=aolsty00050000000014)
I'm quite surprised nobody replied to this - unless this was a crosspost to another list related to the software itself and replies are flowing in there.
I must agree with Will: The current situation with table creation on Wikipedia/media is not the best, especially for casual editors. Knol does in deed make it a lot more simple and maybe we should take a few "inspirations" from them.
-Ian
On Tue, Sep 16, 2008 at 1:14 PM, WJhonson@aol.com wrote:
So being at-heart a consummate traitor, I've been toying around at Knol, and also at Google Sites and at Pbwiki. I was just updating a page tonight on my Knol user-page when I realized that Knol has a rather nice "table creator/editor". I've used it a few times, but it was always sort-of "blah whatever" until I had to tonight actually move cell-contents-with-their-associated-LINKS around in a table.
It was... quite simple, with no hidden problems. Can we not get that in the next MediaWiki upgrade go-round ? It would so simplify the beautification of tabular data and ease the transition for editors who can't quite get their minds wrapped around our current bizarre and unique table-coding. The number of editors we have who understand how to create and maintain in-wiki tables is quite minute, and this WYSIWIG editor just makes it all very transparent and easy.
Will Johnson
**************Psssst...Have you heard the news? There's a new fashion blog, plus the latest fall trends and hair styles at StyleList.com. (http://www.stylelist.com/trends?ncid=aolsty00050000000014) _______________________________________________ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
2008/9/16 Ian A. Holton poeloq@gmail.com:
On Tue, Sep 16, 2008 at 1:14 PM, WJhonson@aol.com wrote:
So being at-heart a consummate traitor, I've been toying around at Knol, and also at Google Sites and at Pbwiki. I was just updating a page tonight on my Knol user-page when I realized that Knol has a rather nice "table creator/editor". I've used it a few times, but it was always sort-of "blah whatever" until I had to tonight actually move cell-contents-with-their-associated-LINKS around in a table. It was... quite simple, with no hidden problems. Can we not get that in the next MediaWiki upgrade go-round ? It would so simplify the beautification of tabular data and ease the transition for editors who can't quite get their minds wrapped around our current bizarre and unique table-coding. The number of editors we have who understand how to create and maintain in-wiki tables is quite minute, and this WYSIWIG editor just makes it all very transparent and easy.
I'm quite surprised nobody replied to this - unless this was a crosspost to another list related to the software itself and replies are flowing in there.
I've forwarded it to mediawiki-l.
Probably the most useful thing would be to bring the Knol table editor to the attention of the FCK Editor for MediaWiki project. I think that's the most functional WYSIWYG MediaWiki editor at present.
- d.
The current situation with table creation on Wikipedia/media is not the best
Yes, I firmly concur with Ian here. Table creation for new editors is a skill that could definitely be said to be one of the most difficult to pick up. We may need to look into inviting any editor with the necessary coding abilities to author an extension that provides some sort of wizard facility for table creation; or, failing that, take a look into revamping the existing series of documentation pages we have on enwiki for all matters table-related.
AGK
2008/9/16 Ian A. Holton poeloq@gmail.com
I'm quite surprised nobody replied to this - unless this was a crosspost to another list related to the software itself and replies are flowing in there.
I must agree with Will: The current situation with table creation on Wikipedia/media is not the best, especially for casual editors. Knol does in deed make it a lot more simple and maybe we should take a few "inspirations" from them.
-Ian
On Tue, Sep 16, 2008 at 1:14 PM, WJhonson@aol.com wrote:
So being at-heart a consummate traitor, I've been toying around at Knol, and also at Google Sites and at Pbwiki. I was just updating a page tonight
on
my Knol user-page when I realized that Knol has a rather nice "table creator/editor". I've used it a few times, but it was always sort-of "blah whatever" until I had to tonight actually move cell-contents-with-their-associated-LINKS around in a table.
It was... quite simple, with no hidden problems. Can we not get that in the next MediaWiki upgrade go-round ? It would so simplify the
beautification
of tabular data and ease the transition for editors who can't quite get their minds wrapped around our current bizarre and unique table-coding. The number of editors we have who understand how to create and maintain in-wiki tables is quite minute, and this WYSIWIG editor just makes it all very transparent and easy.
Will Johnson
**************Psssst...Have you heard the news? There's a new fashion
blog,
plus the latest fall trends and hair styles at StyleList.com. (http://www.stylelist.com/trends?ncid=aolsty00050000000014) _______________________________________________ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
2008/9/16 AGK agkwiki@googlemail.com:
or, failing that, take a look into revamping the existing series of documentation pages we have on enwiki for all matters table-related.
Best way to do that is just to do it.
I think the problem is that MediaWiki table syntax isn't that much simpler than HTML table syntax, it just involves less characters.
A nice JavaScript addon that does a table wizard would probably be popular and might even make it into the base "gadgets" collection.
- d.