[Mediawiki-l] Using Wiki for documentation

[Frederik Dohr]

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info might be outdated by now: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-editor-in-mediawiki/
http://www.librarywebchic.net/wordpress/2006/05/25/adding-a-wysiwyg-editor-to-mediawiki-part-ii/

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.