This is a short introductory training course for Foswiki beginners.

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Slide 1: A Taste of Foswiki

Hula girl The basic function of Foswiki is a Wiki (if that helps!)

A Wiki is like a web site, except that you can edit the content in your browser

Slide 2: Foswiki Wiki

Whiteboard Foswiki implements the basic Wiki idea of a shared whiteboard

Foswiki also acts as an "application platform" to integrate a number of other functions.

Foswiki is an Open-Source development on http://foswiki.org/

Slide 3: Foswiki features

Foswiki builds on the original Wiki concept and adds a number of features that make it very useful in a business environment.

  • A "plugins" interface eases
    • customisation
    • extension
    • application integration

Slide 4: Applications of basic Foswiki

Basic Foswiki can be used as:

Slide 5: Extended applications

Foswiki-with-extensions can be used as:

Slide 6: Structure of a Foswiki page

Foswiki pages are usually organised into three parts:

Foswiki is very configurable, and the look can change. However the essentials will all be there on the page (somewhere!)

Slide 7: The page header

The header of a Foswiki page is generally highlighted in colour, and will usually contain an icon that gives you an idea of where you are, such as a company logo. It will also usually contain:

myco.gif

Slide 8: The menu - part 1

The menu, normally located either on the right or the left side of the content, by default includes a toolbox and a web section.

The Toolbox section contains these items

It is common that the administrator simplifies the toolbox so you may not have all these items in your menu bar.

Slide 9: The menu - part 2

The Webs section lists all the webs

A web is a collection of pages that are related closely together

The Main contains all the user home pages. The System contains documentation for Foswiki and all extensions. The Sandbox is a playground area.

The system administrator can add any number of webs to the system.

Slide 10: The menu - part 3

Besides the Tools and Webs sections it it common to add your own links to important places.

These menu points can be different from web to web.

Slide 11: The page footer

Near the footer of the page you find an action bar which looks similar to this

Edit | Attach | Print version | History: r2 < r1 | Backlinks | Raw View | Raw edit | More topic actions

Slide 12: Editing Pages

_Everyone_ *knows* that =the world= is an OblateSpheroid

Slide 13: What's in a page

Slide 14: Formatting just makes pages prettier

... and easier to read

_Actually_ it is *perfectly* and __absolutely__ flat

appears as

Actually it is perfectly and absolutely flat

Slide 15: Commonly used formatting

Foswiki understands pages in plain text just fine, but you can jazz them up using some simple formatting shortcuts. Here are some of the more commonly used ones:

Slide 16: More common formatting

You type You see
   * Bullet
      * Sub-bullet
  • Bullet
    • Sub-bullet

Slide 17: Even more.....

     | Cat | Feline |
     | Bear | Ursine |
     | Wolf | Lupine |

Slide 18: WikiWords

Slide 19: Referencing other pages and URLs

Slide 20: More formatting

Slide 21: Creating new pages

Slide 22: Attachments

I Attachment Action Size Date Who Comment
txt Sample.txt manage 0.1 K 22 Jul 2000 - 19:37 ProjectContributor Just a sample
gif Smile.gif manage 0.1 K 22 Jul 2000 - 19:38 ProjectContributor Smiley face

Slide 23: Wiki Culture

Enough about mechanics; how is a wiki actually used ? Well, that's really up to you, but there are a number of tricks that the wiki community has developed for collaborative writing that work pretty well: Foswiki doesn't automatically distinguish between these modes; they are purely semantic.

Slide 24: DocumentMode

Slide 25: ThreadMode

You may see a comment box on a page in ThreadMode that makes it easy to quickly add your inputs. Typing in a comment and adding it to a page this way is known as "blogging" wink

Slide 26: StructuredMode

Slide 27: Other Wiki tricks - Categories

Slide 28: Contributed features

Basic Foswiki is rich with features, but is enriched even further by the addition of optional plug-in modules that may (or may not!) be installed in your Foswiki. These are classified as either skins (modules that change the look-and-feel) or plugins (modules that enhance functionality).

Here's a brief description of some of the more common plugins, together with the tags you might expect to see in topics if they are used. You can find out more by visiting the plugin pages.

Slide 29: More plugins

The following plugins are installed on this Foswiki: TWikiCompatibilityPlugin, SpreadSheetPlugin, BatchUploadPlugin, BreadCrumbsPlugin, CalendarPlugin, CommentPlugin, DBCachePlugin, EditChapterPlugin, EditTablePlugin, ExplicitNumberingPlugin, ExternalLinkPlugin, FilterPlugin, FlexWebListPlugin, GenPDFAddOnPlugin, IfDefinedPlugin, ImagePlugin, InterwikiPlugin, JQueryPlugin, LatexModePlugin, MathModePlugin, NatEditPlugin, NatSkinPlugin, PreferencesPlugin, RedirectPlugin, RenderListPlugin, RenderPlugin, SendEmailPlugin, SetVariablePlugin, SlideShowPlugin, SmiliesPlugin, SubscribePlugin, TablePlugin, TwistyPlugin, UploadPlugin, ZonePlugin

There are many other plugins, see http://foswiki.org/Extensions/WebHome

Slide 30: Credits and Acknowledgements

Related topics: WelcomeGuest, WikiCulture, TwentyMinuteTutorial, TopicsAndWebs, WorkingTopics? spacer