Short video on how to edit a Wikipedia article

If you’re interested in knowing how to edit a Wikipedia article, there’s a short (3 min) video on the basics at: http://www.howcast.com/videos/317521-How-To-Edit-a-Wikipedia-Article.

[Link last checked May 2010]

Wikis for documentation and business

Some articles and a video on using wikis for documentation and business projects:

• Stewart Mader: 2 minute video on using wikis for documentation: http://www.ikiw.org/2009/06/22/video-how-to-build-revise-documentation-using-a-wiki/ (there’s LOTS more on wikis available from his Future Changes website: http://www.futurechanges.org/about/ — go to near the end of this page)
• Jeff Hobbs: How to use wikis for business projects: http://mashable.com/2009/07/01/wikis-business-projects/
• Ben Parr: A Small Business Guide to Wikis: http://mashable.com/2009/10/04/business-wikis-guide/
• Wiki While you Work (online book created with a wiki): http://www.customware.net/repository/display/wwyw/Home
• Wiki-fying Docs: Is Using Customer-Accessible Wikis for End-User Documentation Gaining Momentum? (from KeyContent.org)
• And of course, Sarah Maddox, one of the technical writers at Atlassian (makers of the Confluence wiki), has lots of information about using wikis for documentation on her blog: http://ffeathers.wordpress.com (BTW, Atlassian practice what they preach — all their user documentation is in a wiki.)

Update February 2011:

• 10 questions to ask before you start to implement a Wiki: http://xmlpress.net/publications/wiki-how-to-grow/checklist/

[Links last checked and updated February 2011]

Convert to/from various Wikis

Sarah Maddox, a technical writer at Atlassian (creators of the Confluence wiki) and a terrific person, had put together a great list of tools and plug-ins that convert from various document formats into various wikis, and from various wikis into various document formats. Her focus is mainly on tools for Confluence and Mediawiki.

It’s a terrific resource and you can find it on Sarah’s blog: http://ffeathers.wordpress.com/2009/09/14/getting-content-into-and-out-of-wikis/

[Links last checked September 2009]

Unofficial Author-it wiki

Hamish Blunck, a fellow Australian Author-it user, has set up an unofficial Author-it wiki where he and others are documenting Author-it tips and tricks, linking to some good stuff on the Author-it User Group, and generally providing an unofficial supplement to the official Author-it Help and Knowledge Centre.

You can access the wiki here: http://aitwiki.hamishblunck.com/tiki-index.php To post, edit, etc. you’ll need to register.

From Hamish’s original notification:

One of the strengths of the Author-it is the help and support that members of this list provide to each other. But it occurred to me a lot of this useful information is lost and buried in the mountain messages and not captured anywhere. I also thought that it would be useful to have a repository of this great information. I encourage you to add your tips and tricks, your how-to’s, or if you find a great post about Author-it on the web, link to it. Or if you ask a question on the list and you get a useful reply or solution, add it to the wiki.

Confluence Wiki for $5

Atlassian, the developers of the Confluence Wiki software and JIRA bug tracking software have a deal on at the moment where you can get a 5-user license for both products for just $5 each.

The deal finishes on April 24, 2009, and all proceeds of these sales go to a charity.

Get yours quick!

Details:

• http://www.atlassian.com/starter/ (the deal)
• http://blogs.atlassian.com/news/2009/04/confluence_and_3.html (more details about the deal)
• http://www.atlassian.com/starter/faq.jsp (FAQs about the deal)
• http://ffeathers.wordpress.com/2009/04/21/want-a-commercial-confluence-wiki-licence-for-just-5/ (blog post about the deal by Sarah Maddox, a technical writer at Atlassian)

Convert HTML and Word into Wiki markup

Thanks to some members of a technical writing list I’m on, I found out about some tools that convert HTML and Word to Wiki markup. I haven’t tried any of these yet, so I don’t know how ‘clean’ the end result is, but I offer them as possibilities if you’re looking for ways to do this.

• http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Word_macros (Word macros to MediaWiki)
• http://www.infpro.com/Word2MediaWiki.aspx (one of the Word macros mentioned in the link above)
• http://search.cpan.org/~diberri/HTML-WikiConverter-0.63/lib/HTML/WikiConverter.pm (HTML converter to various Wiki markups)
• http://goessner.net/articles/wiky/ (Wiky: A bidirectional markup converter — Wiki to HTML and HTML to Wiki)

Please add any other tools you’ve found via the Comments.

(Thanks to Wade C, Bill S, and Kathy T for these suggestions)

[Links last checked January 2010]

World’s largest “how to” manual

wikiHow (http://www.wikihow.com) is a collaborative writing project to build the world’s largest how-to manual. The site currently contains over 18,000 articles written, edited, and maintained by volunteers—people like you!

Other online tutorials and ‘how to’ websites include:

• http://www.soyouwanna.com (anything and everything you wanted to know how to do; free)
• http://www.tutorialfind.com (lists free tutorials found all over the internet, on all sorts of subjects)
• http://www.findtutorials.com and http://www.tutorials.com (mostly IT tutorials; some free)
• http://www.ehow.com (15,000 step-by-step “how to” instructions)
• http://psdtuts.com/ Adobe Photoshop tutorials
• http://nettuts.com/ Web skill tutorials
• http://communityclips.officelabs.com/ Microsoft Office help videos
• http://www.fixya.com (manuals and help for all sorts of products)
• http://www.instructables.com (‘how to’s for a wide range of categories)
• http://the-manuals.com/ (free manuals for all sorts of things — cars, software, electronics; however, be warned: some are graphic and not suitable for children)
• http://www.manualsonline.com/ (Supposedly 300,000 manuals for electronic devices etc. However, the few random brands and models I tried didn’t have the manual listed. So it may not be as good as it appears to be.)
• http://practicalaction.org/practicalanswers/categories.php Technical information for sustainable living
• And don’t forget YouTube! It’s not just for videos of teenagers doing silly things. Search for the skill area you want to know about, and there’s bound to be a video someone’s made of it. Some are good, some are bad.

[This article is a combination of several first published in the CyberText Newsletter; links last checked November 2009; updated November 2009]