[Mediawiki-l] Using Wiki for documentation

[Jim Wilson]

> 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.

If you choose to hack the Image upload file-extension filter to allow .DOC
uploads, do not expect the built-in wiki search to find them.  The vanilla
search engine is only capable of identifying terms within the body of real
articles.

-- Jim R. Wilson (jimbojw)

On 3/28/07, Frederik Dohr <fdg001 at gmx.net> wrote:
>
> 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.
>
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