Please note: This article was written when PBworks was known as PBwiki. I have edited the article with the new name, but the screenshots still show the name as PBwiki. This is the only change ... everything I had written is still relevant for today. ~Matthew
When you need to collaborate on a group project, a team wiki can help keep everyone’s thoughts together and make sure everyone is on the same page (literally!). Wikis are webpages that anyone can edit, or that only a select group of users can edit. PBworks is popular online wiki system where you can sign up for a basic free wiki to use for your own project. Editing a wiki is quite simple if you know how to do it, and here I’m going to show you how to edit a page in PBworks (most wikis are similar, so the directions might work for another wiki service as well). My example screenshots are in Internet Explorer 8, but the directions will be the same in almost any web browser. I am assuming you already have a wiki. In this example I am showing my current class team wiki, which you can view (but if you’re not in my team, you can’t edit it … sorry) at http://spring09team8.pbworks.com/.
Ok, so first go to the page:
Then click on the “EDIT” that is on the top left right underneath the name of the page (spring09team8 in this case):
That brings up a little bubble that says “To edit this page, request access to the wiki.” Then underneath that it says “Already have an account? Log in!” Click that log in there in that bubble. That will bring you to the login page:
Here you will enter your email address and password (I put a random email there; I wouldn’t suggest emailing it!), and then click Log in, and voila, you will be at the edit page for your wiki:
Now you are at the editor of the wiki. If you are used to Microsoft Word or any other word processor, you should feel at home here. It is just like a simplified word processor. You can use the buttons on the top row to select bold or italic font, you can change the font size or color, insert a link, or just about anything else. And if you know how to edit HTML, you can even click the “Source” button and edit the wiki at code level.
When you are finished editing, click the “Save” button at the bottom left corner of the page to save your work. Or, if you decide to not use what you just wrote, you can click cancel right beside the save button. And if you do end up messing something up, you can always go back to a previous version of the page as every edit and change is saved in the wiki. To do that, click the “Page history” link:
This will bring you to a page that has a list of all the revisions of the page you were looking at:
Then you can choose to compare a previous version of a page with the current one, and then revert to that version of the page if you choose.
This should get you well on you way in editing wikis! Leave a comment below if you have any questions. Happing wiki-ing!
I love my Kingston 2Gb USB flash drive that I picked up for $5 in December. It replaced my old 128Mb flash drive that I had carried my files around with for the past two years. Other than 1 worm that it picked up from a computer in a copy shop (AVG took care of that one easily enough), it had been great for carrying around my important files. With a 2Gb drive now, I carry around a ton of files around and can't imagine how I lived with only 128Mb of storage! So imagine my horror when I walked to the car the other day and noticed that I had lost my trusty flash drive. I had set it on top of some tablets and textbooks, and proceeded to walk out the door carrying the stack of stuff. Thankfully it was quickly found on the chair I had been sitting on, but the incident highlighted how easily these little flash drives can be lost. And other forms of storage are even smaller ... my 2Gb MicroSD card is the size of the fingernail on my pinkie. I never cease to be amazed by how small these things are nowadays. I used to think SD cards were small! So, the bottom line is that if you're carrying any flash media, be careful to keep up with it and back up anything you have on it. And if you're carrying sensitive files (including passwords, scans of identification, etc.), then be extremely careful! I'll try to be more careful in the future, that's for sure. ;-)
Although Microsoft has announced which versions they intend to ship Windows 7 in, they have not said anything officially about pricing yet. Part of the anouncement that was suprising was that they said that they will ship Windows 7 Starter edition globally. Starter edition dates back to XP, and it was the edition intended for cheap computers in emerging markets. A stripped-down and low cost version, starter edition only allows 3 programs to run at one time, among other restrictions. Right now XP and Vista starter are sold as a low-cost OEM option in countries like Thailand and India, but now Microsoft is saying that they intend to ship 7 Starter to all markets. But they haven't said how much they will charge for it. Here's my suggestion ... Make it a free download from Microsoft, just like Visual Studio Express. Basically make it "Windows 7 Express" - a free, yet feature limited, version.
This would make great sense for all parties. First, who in their right mind would pay for an OS that only lets you run 3 programs at once? I'll stick with the OS I already have, thank you very much. But serously, actually, 3 programs would be ok for many home users, and a free version could be an upgrade path off of the old OS they are currently using. This could prevent piracy in many markets. Second, Microsoft would benefit, for many users would decide to upgrade 7 Starter to a paid version of Windows 7 for more features, thus getting revenue they would have otherwise missed. This would target a group that would never upgrade otherwise, so if they didn't end up buying a higher version it still wouldn't be lost revenue. Third, for enthusiasts and IT pros, think of how nice it would be to have a free, limited version of Windows for virtualization and testing! Few are likely to buy a copy of Windows for these purposes, so again, no real lost revenue. But it could result in many more people worldwide using Windows 7, which overall is more profitable for the Windows brand.
And while we are on this, let me say that Windows upgrades should be much cheaper than they currently are. If it cost between $25-$50 to upgrade to Windows 7, many more people would upgrade. Also they should have a family upgrade package that would allow you to upgrade 3 computers to Windows 7 for $90 or so. And having a free starter edition and cheaper upgrades, piracy rates should go down tremendously.
Think about it!
Note: Despite the title of the post, I wasn't meaning it to be satire ... I think the idea here is a good one ;-)
