Wiki questions and support forum

Learning4Content - 29th Online Workshop (August 24 - September 4, 2009)

Building capacity for open education

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If you have any questions or requests for support you can post these directly on this wiki page. Your facilitators will monitor this page and post there responses here.

Instructions

Make sure that you have an account on WikiEducator and that you are currently logged in. (Your WikiEducator username will appear as a link on the top right-hand area of your browser window. Click on the edit tab (towards the top of your browser screen) and sign your edit by clicking on the or typing four tildes (~~~~) then click on the save button below your screen.

Question about backgrounds

Hi. I've been seeing some great, coloured backgrounds on folks' user pages (i.e. sections pieced out as if a text box, with a coloured background). How do I do this? Thanks! --Rkinakin 22:20, 31 August 2009 (UTC)

Hi, a great way to format educational materials is provided by our Pedagogical Templates -- this will provide a variety of boxes you can use to format your pages. --Wayne Mackintosh 22:49, 31 August 2009 (UTC)

Questions about OER portal

How do I go about adding a page for my school to the OER portal page? Thanks--Seine 07:09, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

Easily done -- Join the OERNZ group (http://groups.google.co.nz/group/oernz) -- there are are templates and instructions for New Zealand schools to set up their OER portals on WE. The OER Foundation will help in getting your initial portal uploaded on WikiEducator :-). --Wayne Mackintosh 11:17, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

Question about edit summaries

--User:Rkinakin Hi there. Just a quick question (maybe I missed something in my reading..?) about the "summary" section of the edit page (e.g. on our user accounts). Everytime we make a change, are wee supposed to document it in the summary? I've been just editing and saving! Thanks for any info! Becky

Hi Becky -- Good question. Its considered good etiquette to write a very short summary of your edit. For example "correcting typo" or "Moved paragraph to ..." This is very helpful to the community who monitor the recent changes page -- the comment provides info on the edit. -- Wayne Mackintosh 03:56, 28 August 2009 (UTC)

How to revert to the default skin?

Yesterady I changed my skin, today I can't remember how I did this and I want to revert to the default skin. How do I do this? --Seine 00:16, 31 August 2009 (UTC)

Login and go to the "my preferences" link (top right hand side of your browser). Or http://wikieducator.org/Special:Preferences . Click on the skin tab and select "MonoBook (default)" ----Wayne Mackintosh 00:23, 31 August 2009 (UTC)

Thanks --Seine 00:29, 31 August 2009 (UTC)

Problems with my username

--Dorothy 06:37, 12 August 2009 (UTC) Hello I have two user pages and would like to delete one of them. How can I do this please. Thanks --Dorothy 06:38, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

Hi Dorothy --- you need to insert the following syntax on the page you would like to delete: {{Delete}}. Make sure that you put this syntax on the correct page :-) --Wayne Mackintosh 06:45, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for your reply Wayne. In fact i need to clarify something. when i click on the small icon next to my name on the top which appears as 'Dorothy', i get a user page which i think i created a long time back. Then when i registered for the workshop i provided a new username which is 'doro' and i have a new page. Will it be Ok if i delete the one which appears when i click on my name on top i.e 'Dorothy'. Will it be replaced by the user page 'doro'.. Hope this is not too confusing.Sorry. --Dorothy 07:13, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

Not confusing at all ;-) The icon which appears on the top is the username you used for your current session when you logged into WE. So it appears that you have created two different accounts on WE -- which is fine. You just need to be sure what account you want to use for the future. The one which you don't want to use any more is the one which you should request deletion. --Wayne Mackintosh 07:22, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

Hi again Wayne

I have just deleted the user page that appears when i log in . Now i have the other user page: doro. Can i move it to the one i deleted. Can you please advise. Thanks --Dorothy 08:31, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

Hi Dorothy -- I deleted the page you requested for deletion. Remember I asked you to be clear on the page you wanted to be deleted. As an admin I can restore deleted pages -- but I am totally confused as to what user page and login you want to use. I deleted the page with reference to the page your requested for deletion. What username do you use for log in to Wikiducator? This is the page you should be using for your user page. Step 1 -- tell me the username you will be using. Then we will take it from there :-) -- Wayne Mackintosh 09:02, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

The username i use to log in is Dorothy I would like to use the username Doro. I apologise for this confusion :-( I have noticed that the user page i deleted has been restored. Thank you. In fact the problem right now is that when you go to the participant's list, and when you click on my name, it leads to another user page 'Doro'and not the one that appears when i click on the icon next to my name. I guess i did a mistake when submitting my user name. What should i do, please?

Hi Wayne It's Ok now. Have solved the problem. Thanks --Dorothy 02:23, 28 August 2009 (UTC)

Fantastic Dorothy -- glad you got this sorted :-) --Wayne Mackintosh 03:49, 28 August 2009 (UTC)

Stuck with transferring info from outside Ubuntu onto wiki

Hi , Trisha Korth here. I've got two questions :

1. I am stuck with knowing how to insert a powerpoint as a slideshow onto my Antarctica site for children from non-Ubuntu user schools to view. I have managed it in odp format as open office but that cannot be seen by children that don't have open office. What format should I upload it as for enabling other users to view it? or is there another way?)
2. When I try to transport a written document that I have created outside the wiki, onto my wiki site via Export then MediaWiki, it doesn't want to do it. What am I missing??

Thanks for your time and patience! --Trisha Korth 11:55, 28 August 2009 (UTC)

Hi, Trisha -- there are a few options:

• The easiest will be to use Open Office and export your slide show in Flash format .swf. First upload the file on WikiEducator using [[media|mypresentationfilename.swf]]. You can then use the flash syntax to embed the file on your page <flash>file=mypresentationfilename.swf|width=50%|height=50%|quality=best</flash> -- The slide show will advance each time the user clicks on the slide. There are some examples of flash objects here -- ignore the flashvars stuff in the syntax -- that's a more advanced feature for parsing variables from WikiEducator to flash objects that accept variables.
• You can upload the slideshow to a web service like slideshare - http://www.slideshare.net/ and then provide a link from your page to your slideshow on slideshare.

If you get stuck, email me a copy of your slideshow and the page where you would like this to appear and I'll upload it as an example for you to see. BTW -- I'm going to put an Ubuntu userbox on your page :-) --Wayne Mackintosh 22:23, 28 August 2009 (UTC)

Horay, I finally got it sorted!! I now have put up a link for Ubuntu users (possibly superfluous now!) and the media slide show and a link to Slideshare which will enable a full screen viewing for whole class purposes. Thanks so much Wayne, I really appreciate your time and effort! --Trisha Korth 05:25, 31 August 2009 (UTC)

That's great Trisha. You are doing a fabulous job on your userpage. --Nellie Deutsch 13:15, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

Uploading image woes

I've been trying to upload a new photo to my userpage but keep getting this error
Internal error
Could not rename file "/tmp/phplc3ij5" to "public/7/79/Hlamond.jpg".
Any clues? Thanks --Hmlamond 09:06, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

I searched for the file /tmp/phplc3ij5" but couldn't find it. Is it a jpg, gif, or something else? Thank you. --Nellie Deutsch 12:30, 1 September 2009 (UTC).

I think its the link from my user page under the photo section. I created a new image link as per the instructions (which is red called hlamond.jpg) but when I try and upload the photo I get the error. i know its probably something silly I've done as I have successfully uploaded another photo. Will try again from scratch :-) --Hmlamond 02:00, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

OK - just tried again from starting over and it worked just fine!
--Hmlamond 02:13, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

Everything looks great, now, Heather. It seems strange, but sometimes when we pose a question, the answer seems to follow. --Nellie Deutsch 04:35, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

New Template creation problems

Hi, Peles here, I am stuck on the Navigation Templates. When I follow the instructions on creating templates I do not get the page as shown in the tutorial (please see page showing how to enter new template after subtopic Creating Templates). I do not see the instructions edit this page. Instead, I find myself on a new template but there are several other links I have not created (just above Home, Sectio 1, Section 2. Section 3, etc). When I pass the cursor on these links (above) they show another user name. When I click there, there is no content! Please help! Furthermore, is the new template a stand alone or I can connect it with my current project? Thanks.

Peles--Peles

Got it to work! Still need to make it pretty. Thanks Peles--peles 20:45HRS 3 September, 2009. (: Peles, is this the page you are trying to access? --Nellie Deutsch 10:58, 4 September 2009 (UTC))