A guide for faculty at UMass Boston using Wikispaces

 A wiki is a web page or collection of web
pages that can be linked together as a
website.
 Wikis are often used as collaborative spaces
where many editors can contribute content.
 A wiki makes it easy to get started with
creating a website quickly.
 UMB Wikispaces also has a Discussions tool.

 Visit UMB Wikispaces at
http://www.wikispaces.umb.edu
 Click Join from menu located at the top right
of the page.

 Enter your email account user name into the user
name box and replace the dot (.) with an
underscore (_).
For example : Fred Jones (fred.jones@umb.edu) email
user name is fred.jones. His Wikispaces user name is
fred_jones

 Enter a password in the password box. It
should be at least 6 characters long.
 Enter your full UMass Boston Email Address
into the Email Address box.
 Click Join
Check your email box for a confirmation email sent
to your UMB email address; you must click on the
confirmation link in that email in order for your
account to be activated.

Send an email to wiki.admin@umb.edu
with the following information:
 Your name and position at the University.
 The class or project for which you need a wiki.
 How long you think you'll need this particular wiki
 If a course, please include
- course name, catalog and section number (ex.
HIST 320-01 Tudor History)
- WISER class number
 Phone number and best time to reach you.

1. Click Manage Wiki.
2. Click Invite People from the People row of the
Manage Wiki page.

3. Enter the UMB email
addresses of the students
to add to the Wiki into
the Send to box.
Separate each email
address with a comma.
4. Enter a message into the
Your message box.
5. Click Send.
An invite is sent to students who do not already have an
account on UMB Wikispaces along with instructions on how to
create an account.

Alternatively, you can ask the wiki
administrator to add the students to your
wiki:
 Send an email to wiki.admin@umb.edu
with the following information:
 The name of the wiki to which the students are to
be added.
 A list of students with students’ first and last
names and email addresses.

 Click the Sign In link at the top right of the
http://www.wikispaces.umb.edu home page.

 Click Edit this Page to edit your Home page.

 The Editing Toolbar appears at the top of the
page when you are in edit mode.

 The first group of options are
basic options for formatting text:
 Bold, Italicize, Underline
 Text color
 The drop-down box allows you to
select preset text heading styles or
select Normal style.

The next group of options allow
you to :
 Create Ordered List
 Create Unordered List
 Insert Horizontal Rule
 Insert Link
 Remove Link

 The next group of icons
allows you to include objects:
 Insert Images and Files
 Embed Widgets
 Insert Table
 Insert Special Characters
 Insert Code

Text Editor – allows you to use wikitext
, which is a short hand for formatting text.
When using Text Editor, the button will
change to Visual Editor.
Preview – preview your changes before
saving
Save – to save changes
Cancel – allows you to cancel your changes

 Wikitext is an alternative to HTML and is a simple way to
format pages. To use wikitext, click Text Editor in the
Formatting Toolbar and enter special characters in the Text
editor. Some examples are listed below:
Usage Wikitext Web page preview
Use asterisks for * Topic one •Topic one
bullets * Topic two •Topic two
* Topic three •Topic three
Heading styles = Heading one =
== Heading two ==
=== Heading three ==

1. Click Text Editor.
2. Enter the following wikitext at
the top of your page to include
a table of contents for the
page:
[[toc]]
3. Click Save.
All text that has been formatted with a
heading style (ex.Heading 1, Heading 2, etc.)
will be included in the table of contents at the
top of your page and will link to the
corresponding content . Each heading level is
indented.

 There is much more you can do with wikitext.
View examples at Help.Wikitext:
http://help.wikispaces.com/Help.Wikitext

1. Click Insert Images and Files
from the Editing Toolbar.
2. From Insert Files tab, select inserts file to include
the image on the page. Selecting the links option
includes a link to the image.
3. Click Upload Files tab
4. Click Browse.
5. Locate the image to upload and select it. Click
Upload.
6. A thumbnail of the image appears in the dialog box.
Double click the thumbnail to place it on the page.
7. Add a caption to the image by entering the text into
the Caption box in the Image Properties dialog box.

1. Click Insert Images and Files from the Editing
Toolbar.
2. From Insert Files tab, select inserts file (to
include a file icon on the page) or links to
include a link only.
3. Click Upload Files tab.
4. Click Browse. Locate the file to upload and
select it.
5. Click Upload.
6. A document icon appears in the dialog box.
Double click the icon to link it from your page.
7. Click Save.

If an image or file has already been uploaded
previously, you will only need to link to it the
next time.
1. Click Insert Images and Files from the Editing
Toolbar.
2. The Insert Files tab is selected. Select the insert file
option to include the image. Files will include a file
icon along with the link. Selecting the insert link will
link to the file or image only.
3. Double click the thumbnail of the file or image that
appears in the dialog box to place it on the page.

1. Click New Page link above the Navigation
Menu.
2. The Make a New Page window appears. Enter
a page name in the text box.
3. Click Create.

1. Select the text to be linked.
2. Click Insert Link icon.
3. The Wiki Link tab is selected.
4. Click Choose an existing page below the
Page Name box.
5. The Page Name box changes to a drop
down list. Select the wiki page from the
Page Name drop down box.
6. Click Add Link.

You can link to another wiki page or another
web page outside of your wiki.
1. Select the text to be linked.
2. Click Insert Link from the Formatting
Toolbar.
3. Select the External Link tab from Insert
Link dialog box.
4. Enter the web address in the Address box.
5. Click Add Link.

Two text boxes are displayed at the bottom of
every page in edit mode.
 The notes box is used to let other wiki editors know
what you edited on the page ( ex. the link to
support vendor was updated)
 The tags box is used to indicate the topic of your
page (ex. Web 2.0 tools, Social Bookmarking, etc.)
 Click Save to save the changes to the page.

 Widgets are used to include dynamic
content within a web page.
 It is possible to embed one or several
widgets on one web page.
 Some examples of widgets are: a calendar
displaying links to events, a youtube video, a
survey or chat application.

1. Click the Embed Widget icon.
2. Select the icon of the widget to embed.
3. Follow the instructions displayed within the
widget dialog box.
4. Click Save to embed the widget.

1. To embed a widget that is not listed in the Widgets
dialog box, use the Other HTML option.
2. Visit the web page that contains the widget to
embed.
3. Copy the HTML. Find on the page “Embed this
content”, “Add to mySite blog” or similar.
4. Paste the HTML into the box.
5. Click Save.
6. The next time the page is viewed the content will
appear on the wiki page.

1. Click the Table icon
2. Select the number of rows and columns to
display.
3. Click Insert Table.

1. Click on any cell of the table to
display the table formatting icon.
2. Click on the table icon to open
the formatting options menu.
3. Individual cells, rows or columns
can be formatted by selecting the
option from the menu .

1. Click the are of the page where the character is to
appear.
2. Click Special Characters icon.
3. Click on the desired character to place it on the
page.

It is possible to include code from scripting
and programming languages such as action
script, javascript, php and javascript to name
a few.
1. Click Insert Code from Editing Toolbar.
2. Select the code language from the pull-
down menu.
3. Paste the code into the text box.
4. Click Insert Code.

 LaTeX support allows you to insert math formulas into your
pages.
 Enclose the LaTeX formula within [[math]] tags.
For example:
Enter this formula in Edit Save or Preview the page
to display this formula
[[math]]
x = a_0 + frac{1}{displaystyle
a_1
+ frac{1}{displaystyle a_2
+ frac{1}{displaystyle a_3 +
a_4}}}
[[math]]

 Visit the following websites for more
information about LaTeX symbol usage:
 Most commonly used
http://www.artofproblemsolving.com/Wiki/index.
php/LaTeX:Symbols
 LaTeX Tutorial
http://www.andy-
roberts.net/misc/latex/latextutorial9.html

 The Navigation Menu
located to the left of
the content
area, appears on all
wiki pages.
 The Navigation Menu
usually contains all
pages in your wiki and
may include links to
other websites.

 Click the Edit Navigation
link that appears below the
Navigation Menu.
 The Navigation Menu
appears as a wiki page
along with the Editing
Toolbar allowing you to
make changes to the page.
 Click Save after making
edits.

 Your wiki has a Discussions Tool. It allows you
to create discussion topics to which others
can respond.

1. Click Discussion
Tab.
2. Enter a subject in
the subject box.
3. Enter a message in
the message box.
4. Click Post.

 Once you have created a Discussion post, it
appears as a link in Discussions.
 Click the Discussion Subject link to open it.

1. A Reply box
appears below the
Discussion post.
2. Enter a response
into the Reply
message box.
3. Click Post.

It is possible to view all page edits and new
discussion messages on the Recent Changes
page.
 Click Recent Changes above Navigation Menu.

The Recent Changes page adds a new entry in a
listing each time a page is edited and saved. Each
page version listed chronologically, includes page
title, the date and time it was saved, the author name
and any comments associated with the page.

1. To Revert to a previous version of a
page, select the link of the page version to
revert to.

2. After the page opens, click the revert to this
version link.

3. Click Revert to commit to the changes.

 Click Recent Changes above Navigation
Menu.
 Click Notify Me tab if you wish to be notified
whenever a change is made to the wiki. You
have the option of selecting the following:
▪ Entire space or specific pages to monitor
▪ Page edits, new discussion posts or both
▪ Receive notifications as email messages or RSS feeds
Some examples of RSS readers are Google Reader, Bloglines, or
Pageflakes, Microsoft Outlook allows RSS subscriptions

 Click Manage Wiki link to access Wiki
Preferences

Wiki organizers
can manage the
following:
 Name, description,
copyright license
 Look and Feel –
colors, templates
and themes
 Members and
permissions
 Subscriptions

 Wikispaces Help
 http://help.wikispaces.com
 http://www.wikispaces.com/help+index
 http://help.wikispaces.com/Help.Editing
 Wikispaces Tours
http://www.wikispaces.com/site/tour#introd
uction