On 8/14/06, mboverload mboverload@gmail.com wrote:
May I remind you things "thing that newbies need" are ALREADY in buttons ABOVE the text box, along with headings, external links, images, nowiki, and others which even I never use.
Ok, let's not obsess too much over the buttons themselves (WYSIWYG is not about buttons, it's about editing *directly* in the final output. But for the sake of rational argument, here are the current sets buttons:
"Vanilla" MediaWiki (monobook.css only?): '''Bold''', ''Italic'', [[Link]], [External link], ==Level 2 headline==, [[Image:...]], [[Media:...]], <math></math>, <nowiki></nowiki>, ~~~~, ----, #REDIRECT
Wikiwyg implementation as seen at http://wikiwyg.wikia.com '''Bold''', ''Italic'', [[Link]], [External link], ==Level 2 headline==, (no headline), ----, * bulleted list, # Numbered list, (more indented), (less indented),
Lack of bullet/numbered list support is the most obvious missing "button" from vanilla MediaWiki. Tables are missing from both. Horizontal rules could probably be safely scrapped from both, and I don't know that the [[Media:...]] and <math>...</math> buttons are particularly helpful for the newbie. A drop-down list of common templates would be handy. Similarly, maybe the [[Image:...]] and [[Media:...]] could be replaced with a drop down list of all the namespaces - then it would be useful for people working on foreign wikipedias, where trying to find the local namespace for [[Category:]] can be a pain.
But I repeat: it's not about buttons.
I don't accept any argument that says WYSIWYG is needed for newbies.
Uh-huh.
Steve