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The wiki is easy to change
To alter pages in this wiki click on the "edit" tab at the top of the page you want to edit (some pages, like this one, may not have such a tab because they have been protected from editing by other than the instructor). This invokes a WYSIWYG ("what you see is what you get") editor called FCKEditor. This editor will allow you to quickly and easily create new content or to alter existing content, create new pages, format text, insert pictures and make hyperlinks to other pages in the wiki and throughout the internet.
The editor window
When you invoke the editor you will see a page with an editing window above which will be an editor palette looking much like this:
Placing your mouse over any icon briefly will reveal a short description. A list of all the icons on the FCKEditor toolbar is also available.
Simply click in the space below the editor palette and begin typing. You can format the text as you wish by selecting the text to be formatted and clicking on the appropriate icon. For example, to create italics select the text and click on the "italics" icon (look for this
in the palette). Icons exist for making text bold, underlined, strikethrough, subscript and superscript.
Other icons control line properties, like those controlling alignment (right, center, left or justified:
). You can also invoke styles, formats, font faces and font sizes using the pull down menus seen in the palette. In the example above the font "Verdana" is selected.
The two links showing a color palette allow you to color either text itself or the background to that text.
To distinguish paragraphs it is useful to put two "returns" between them.
Simply click in the space below the editor palette and begin typing. You can format the text as you wish by selecting the text to be formatted and clicking on the appropriate icon. For example, to create italics select the text and click on the "italics" icon (look for this
in the palette). Icons exist for making text bold, underlined, Other icons control line properties, like those controlling alignment (right, center, left or justified:
). You can also invoke styles, formats, font faces and font sizes using the pull down menus seen in the palette. In the example above the font "Verdana" is selected.The two links showing a color palette allow you to color either text itself or the background to that text.
To distinguish paragraphs it is useful to put two "returns" between them.
Creating links
One strength of the wiki is its ability to connect web pages by means of a hyperlink (as above where FCKEditor links to a page describing the WYSIWYG editor). You can create links at any point in your text to other pages in the wiki or to internet pages. To create a link, select the point in your text where you want the link to appear and click on the "link" icon: 
. A pop-up window will open with a pull-down menu that allows you to create a link to the internet, elsewhere in the wiki, to an "anchor" or a link to an E-mail destination. Select the type of link you would like to make and enter the location of the target (the URL of the internet page or the name of the wiki page, for example) in the appropriate box. You will probably not need to use anchors (positions on a page that you can direct the browser to jump to on clicking the hyperlink).
. A pop-up window will open with a pull-down menu that allows you to create a link to the internet, elsewhere in the wiki, to an "anchor" or a link to an E-mail destination. Select the type of link you would like to make and enter the location of the target (the URL of the internet page or the name of the wiki page, for example) in the appropriate box. You will probably not need to use anchors (positions on a page that you can direct the browser to jump to on clicking the hyperlink).Creating an entirely new wiki page
To create a new page (e.g., "New Page") simply create a new wiki link and enter the desired name in the appropriate box in the pop-up menu.
Remember that every page must have an entirely unique name. Please, when creating new pages try to make them as short as possible and as specific as possible. DO NOT use generic names like "writing assignment". Instead, John Doe might decide to create a page like "John Doe Assignment 2".
Remember that every page must have an entirely unique name. Please, when creating new pages try to make them as short as possible and as specific as possible. DO NOT use generic names like "writing assignment". Instead, John Doe might decide to create a page like "John Doe Assignment 2".
Wiki pages are never lost! (well almost never...)
Do not dispair if a page you have saved seems to have disappeared. Clicking on the "history" tab at the top of the page brings up a list of ALL previous versions of the page. You can click on a link to any of those pages, edit and save it to restore a "lost" page. Pages that have not been saved can truly be lost. BEWARE of navigating away from a browser page on which you are editing a page. If the page has not been saved it can easily be lost!
