- Here’s where Co-Editors can help each other out with ‘How To’s.
How To Make External Links open in a New Window/Tab
by dalinian Dec 10
By default when you add a link on a wiki page here it’s very quick and easy, but you don’t see an ‘Open in new window’ option. That’s fine for internal links to other places inside this wiki (like the nav-aids-inna-table page footer, sidebar, table of contents, etc) – but external links to places outside the wiki ought to open in a new window (or a new tab in modern tabbed browser windows). For example:
For more background info, see 'NVIDIA Introduces dual Cortex A9 based Tegra 2' by Anand Lal Shimpi, at AnandTech on 01 July 2010
Thankfully making it so only takes a few clicks, and here’s how.
How To Add a New Page
by dalinian 13 Jan 11
1. Page Preparation
First decide where your new page would best fit into the existing Wiki structure: see STRUCTURE on page 0a – Introduction to NI FAQ Wiki.
If you’re unsure, do please feel free to ask the Co-Editor Team – either:
- post your question on: http://groups.google.com/group/nifaq
- send a message to: nifaq@googlegroups.com
For this worked example, we’ll be inserting a Wish List page, to capture our desires for future gadget models from NI. Since a Wish List crystallises the collective desires of our 1d – Notion Ink Community it would best fit into our Wiki's structure as ‘1h – Wish List’.
Recommendation: draft the content of your new page in a simple word processor, such as...
...before creating the new page; then you can:
- copy-&-paste your Page Name into the ‘Name your page:’ field
- copy-&-paste your initial Page Content into the PBworks page editor pane
2. Page Naming
As you can see in the Sidebar on the right hand side of any Wiki page, page names begin with an alphanumeric code which locates each page in a book-like sequence of pages (in this case ‘1h’). The whole page name, from left to right, goes as follows:
- page code (in this case ‘1h’)
- a space
- an en dash (‘–’ or alt+- on Mac OS X; Unicode 2013; you can also copy-&-paste an en dash from another page name)
- another space
- page title, in Title Case (in this case ‘Wish List’)
For example: ‘1h – Wish List’
When you need to add a page link while editing a page (as you will in step 4. Page Integration below), then conforming to this page naming standard makes finding a page name very easy: just click on the ‘Show all 62* pages’ link on the right hand side of the PBworks page editor pane (at the foot of the ‘Insert Links, Pages tab’ box), then use your browser’s ‘Find...’ facility to locate the page by typing its page code into the ‘Find:’ field. Of course, if you can already see the page you’re after in the ‘Insert Links, Pages tab’ box, there’s no need to ‘Find...’ it.
*page count at the time of making this ‘How To’ – it may be higher, but I’m sure you get the idea
3. Page Creation
Here’s how to get your new page started.
4. Page Integration
There are likely to be at least five other pages you need to edit briefly, to integrate your new page into the Wiki.
4a. Previous Page
Change the ‘NEXT’ page link in the right hand box of the previous page’s nav-aid page footer table to point to your new page.
4b. Next Page
Change the ‘PREVIOUS’ page link in the left hand box of the next page’s nav-aid page footer table to point to your new page.
4c. Section Page
Add your new page to the Section page’s Page Index.
4d. Sidebar
At the foot of the Sidebar on the right hand side of any page, click on the ‘Edit the sidebar’ link, then add your new page to the Sidebar’s page index. 
4e. NI FAQ Front Page – Table of Contents
Edit the NI FAQ Front Page, and add your new page to the Table of Contents page index.
5. Tell the Co-Editor Team
Post a message on our Google Group communications hub to tell your fellow Co-Editors about the new page you just added – either:
- post your mesage on: http://groups.google.com/group/nifaq
- send a message to: nifaq@googlegroups.com
Congratulations! I hope if you've followed this 'How To' this far, you've just created a New Page on our Wiki – for which, thanks very much indeed.
How To Embed Video
by dalinian Dec 10
There’s more than one way to get video embedded on a page in our NI FAQ Wiki, and as Rahul and I have discovered, they’re not all equally successful. So here is what we know does work well for YouTube vidz, including a very handy begin-playback-at-[Time] trick. If you’re after embedding video from elsewhere, experiment on the 7b – Sandbox page, test in as many browsers as you can, and implement on the substantive target wiki page – then leave a ‘How To’ tip below this one to share your discovery.
How To Embed Video from YouTube
by dalinian Dec 10
How To Play a YouTube Video from a Specific Time (instead of from its beginning)
by dalinian Dec 10
Ever wish to play a YouTube video starting from a specific time, like playing a 6m 25s long video from 1m 20s (where m = minutes, s = seconds)? Simply add #t=[StartPoint] at the end of each URL of Youtube and the play back will start automatically from the StartPoint you specify. For example to skip directly to 68th second of video or 1m 8s of the video, simply append either #t=68s or #t=1m8s at the end of the URL and hit enter. The video will start playing from the specified StartPoint time onwards.
Here’s an example of what your final URL will look like, in this case playing from the ‘Golden Ratio’ intertitle:
» http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEkldqKfB1M#t=4m37s
And here’s how that video looks, when embedded as per ‘How To Embed Video from YouTube’ above with the suffix #t=4m37s appended in step 3:
ADAM’s Calculator App, featuring the Golden Ratio button, from NI video ‘Introducing Eden - VIII’
~ source: adapted from ‘Play a Video from a Specific Time Instead of Beginning on YouTube’ – by dalinian 01 Jan 11
Alternative way of embedding videos (non-YouTube)
by Francois Brutsch 07 Jan 11 (up'd 11 Jan 11)
This method is simply to paste the embedding code into source-edit mode. It should work, it may work sometime, but it didn't for the SlashGear videos on the 1c – Notion Ink Videos Galore page...
- On the page of the non-YouTube video, copy the embedding code
- Point the mouse where you want the video on your Wiki page, maybe write 'CODE-HERE'
- Click on the Source button in the Edit toolbar (second line, second from right) to show the source-edit mode
- Paste the code (or select & paste over 'CODE-HERE')
- Click on the Source button to go back to the WYSIWYG-edit mode
- Save your work
Embedding Fail
by dalinian 08 Jan 11
While what Francois recommends above (with wee edits from dalinian) SHOULD indeed work, I experimented with this method for those very SlashGear videos in our 7b – Sandbox and discovered a reason why this fails, but not unfortunately how to make it work.
- When you copy the embedding code, you get quite a lot of it;
- when you paste it in source-edit mode, it all shows up;
- but when you "Click on the Source button to go back to the WYSIWYG-edit mode", PBworks seems to reject a goodly portion of the embedding code;
- clicking on the Source button in the Edit toolbar again to show the source-edit mode reveals these excisions – as the example table below shows.
| Example: the 'Launching Applications' video from 'Notion Ink Adam hands-on at CES 2011' at slashgear.com | |
| The embedding code you copy from slashgear.com: | What's left of that embedding code after the excisions wrought by PBworks: |
| <object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" width="580" height="361" id="SGTV" name="SGTV"> <param name="movie" value="http://asset.slashgear.tv/sgplayer.swf" /> <param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /> <param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /> <param name="flashvars" value="config=http://asset.slashgear.tv/sgtv.php?vkey=8a345332c751b2f2e476" /> <embed id="SGTV" name="SGTV" src="http://asset.slashgear.tv/sgplayer.swf" width="580" height="361" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" flashvars="config=http://asset.slashgear.tv/sgtv.php?vkey=8a345332c751b2f2e476" /> </object> |
<object width="580" height="361" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"> <embed id="SGTV" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="580" height="361" src="http://asset.slashgear.tv/sgplayer.swf" allowscriptaccess="never" allownetworking="internal"></embed> |
If anybody with more experience at solving this kinda problem than Francois or dalinian can create a solution or a workaround, the Wiki would benefit and we'd be most grateful. In the meantime, the workaround is to download the video as an MP4 file first, then follow the method below.
Adding an MP4 video
by dalinian 11 Jan 11
What threw me is the "Hold On" at step 6. The screen never changed so I just clicked on insert plugin. Nothing appeared to happen until I saved the page and then the video appeared. That's how I got the Ellen video on my page. How long should you wait at that step before proceeding? cx650t on 11 Jan 2011 at 19:16 UTC From my experience in uploading the 3 remaining videos, there isn't any need to wait before inserting the plugin: eventually the video will replace the "Hold on. Your video is almost available" message on the published page - François Brutsch 11 Jan 2011 23:59 UTC
How to upload / add a picture
by Francois Brutsch 01 Jan 11
Maybe obvious to you, but was not to me ;-) so here it is.
How to upload a picture from your computer
The image tool is not in the Edit workspace menu, but on top of the sidebar (on the right):
- Click on Upload files
Alternatively, if you are already on the page where you want to put a picture you need to upload first, use the Upload files link in the toolbox (sidebar on the right)
- Click on the Images folder (down the list)
- Click on the Upload files button (top of the sidebar on the left)
- Select the files from your computer (you can add more than one) and click Open to confirm
Your picture(s) appear(s) now in the content of the Pictures folder
How to add a picture to a page
- In the toolbox in the sidebar, click on the Images and files tab
- With the mouse, drag the picture you want to add to your page
That's it! You can add a link to the image using the Add Link tool in the Edit toolbar.
How to choose a Pastel Colour for a Table or Table Cell background colour
by dalinian, 08 Jan 11
Tables are very valuable tools for structuring content on a webpage, so I've used them on our NI FAQ Wiki in several places, eg:
- NI FAQ Front Page – the 'Welcome to the...' box and the Table of Contents
- 1g – Glossary – the Glossary Table
- 7c – Standard Page Elements – the standard page footer
- 7e12 – Tim Dalinian Jones (dalinian) – the ID table
By using varied background colours for different parts of the table, you can structure the content within the table – and the Table of Contents on the NI FAQ Front Page best demonstrates this:
NI FAQ Wiki's Table of Contents
Colours are specified in PBworks wikis using a 6-digit hexadecimal code, but you don't need to fret about the technicalities when you've a good colour table to hand, and the one I use is:
» X11/browser colors, with closest web-safe equivalents
Here's a small sample of the colour table from that webpage:
Two sample areas of the extensive colour table at X11/browser colors, with closest web-safe equivalents
The colour codes I've been using in our Wiki are in the 'Pseudo Web Safe' column (for variety) and from the pastel colours towards the foot of the table (so dark text shows up well, in high contrast).
You just double-click to select the 6-digit hexadecimal code for the colour you want, then copy-&-paste the code into the appropriate 'Background Colour:' field in the table you're creating.
There are two places where you can specify background colour in a table:
- whole table level – [ Table ∇ ] button > Table properties > 'Background Colour:' field
- table cell level – [ Table ∇ ] button > Cell > Table cell properties > 'Background Colour:' field
Unfortunately, there isn't a way to flood a whole table column or row with the same background colour, so you have to set each cell's background colour to get that effect.
How To Re-Link our 27-Page Glossary
Welcome to our Great Re-linking Project!
Our magnificent Glossary is becoming a treasure trove of introductory information for regular non-geek ADAMites, cross-linked to from all over the substantive pages of our Wiki (eg: page 3a – All about Eden and Android). But as it’s complexity grew it got ‘too big’ for one PBworks page, or even three pages, so at Sujith’s fine suggestion, we’ve broken it down alphabetically into 27 Glossary Table pages, plus a preceding Index page:
| Index | Numeric | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z |
It’s now very unlikely that any single Glossary Table page (eg: 1gA – Glossary A) will ever get ‘too big’ for one PBworks page. But it does mean that we need to re-establish the links from our substantive Wiki pages (eg: 3a – All about Eden and Android) to the Terms on our Glossary Table pages (eg: to page 1gE – Glossary E for the Term “Eden”, and to page 1gA – Glossary A for the Term “Android”). So here’s an illustrated ‘How To’ for this one-time-only Great Re-Linking Project.
This ‘How To’ shows how to re-link the Term “Genesis” as a worked example, using tabbed browsing in the popular Firefox browser, but the process works the same in other browsers too. I’ll illustrate using menus, but it’s usually quicker-&-easier to use the equivalent keyboard{+mouse} shortcut for your browser/OS combination; eg: where I'll illustrate ‘Edit’ menu > ‘Find’, then cmd+F does it quicker (for Firefox on Mac OS X).
Re-Linking A Glossary Term – A Worked Example Using “Genesis”
A. Begin by opening page ‘1g0 – Glossary’ at the ‘Glossary Index’ in Browser Tab One – this Glossary Index Table contains links to:
• each of the 27 Glossary Table pages (eg: “ G ”)
• every Term in the Glossary (eg: “Genesis”)
B. Choose which Term you are going to re-link – all the italicised Terms still need re-linking. Best to choose a letter nobody has worked on yet (where all Terms beginning with that letter are still italicised), and then it’s very unlikely you’ll be re-linking the same Term as somebody else at the same time. For the purposes of this worked example, let’s say you pick “ G ”, and you’re next Term for re-linking is “Genesis” – here’s how to proceed.
C. Open Browser Tab Two with a Wiki page loaded, eg:
• right-click on the “ G ” link and choose ‘Open Link in New Tab’ or similar; or
• use an ‘Open Link in New Tab’ keyboard+mouse shortcut, such as cmd-left-click on “ G ” (on Mac OS X)
D. Follow through this illustrate process:
E. That’s demonstrated the first re-linking. Then it’s just rinse-&-repeat:
E.1 REPEAT FOR INSTANCES ON THE PAGE
- use step 7 (use the 'Find next occurance of the phrase' down button to step through all instances of "Genesis" on a page) to locate further re-linking candidates;
- for each re-linking candidate:
- use step 10 (remove the link to the previous iteration of the Glossary)
- use steps 14, 15, and 16 (select Term text, click [Add Link] button, paste new linking URL from the Glossary Index Table, press ENTER)
E.2 REPEAT FOR THE PAGES TO BE PROCESSED
- When all re-linking candidates on a page have been re-linked:
- click the [Save] button to save the fully re-linked page
- close the Browser Tab Three, to dismiss the fully re-linked page
- in the Browser Tab Two, open the next TO BE PROCESSED page and repeat E.1 above
F. When you’ve fully re-linked, saved and dismissed the final TO BE PROCESSED page:
- close the Browser Tab Two, to dismiss the ‘Search this workspace’ search results page
- back in Browser Tab One, in the Glossary Index Table, select the Term (in this case “Genesis”), and remove its italicisation – to show other Co-Editors that this Term is now fully re-linked on all Wiki pages on which it occurs
G. Er...
H. That’s it! Congratulations, you’ve learned how to play a part in our Great Re-linking Project. Go forth and re-link another Term, and another, and another – until all Terms in the Glossary Index Table are non-italic, signalling the conclusion of our Great Re-linking Project.
The Art of Significance
The task goes much more quickly-&-easily when you know what to ignore, that is you appreciate the Significance of Pages and Candidate Term Instances.
Significance – Pages
As illustrated above, the Significant TO BE PROCESSED pages are from Sections 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6. All page names begin with a page code, beginning with Section number, to help quickly identify to which section they belong.
The Insignificant Pages to Ignore are:
- the current Glossary Index Table page: 1g0 – Glossary
- any pages from Section 7 – NI FAQ ADMINISTRATION
- three pages from previous iterations of the Glossary:
- 1g – Glossary (which will later feature manual redirection links to the Terms on the 27 Glossary Table pages)
- 1g1 – Glossary A-M (which was short-lived and will be deleted)
- 1g2 – Glossary N-Z (which was short-lived and will be deleted)
Significance – Candidate Term Instances
More of an art form than a science, WHICH instances of the Term you are re-linking SHOULD be linked to the Glossary is a matter for your discerning judgement.
In general, I try to:
- Link from an instance of the Term in a body text paragraph, rather than in a Heading
- if there isn't an instance of the Term in a body text paragraph, but it would read better if there were, type it in then link it
- if necessary (eg: in an Unanswered question), link from an instance of the Term in a Heading
- Only link the first instance of the Term for a particular answer
- Do also link the first instance of the Term in a caption, call out box, quoted paragraph, etc.
Info on comic sans and why choosing a different font is more appropriate
Comic sans has an appropriate time and place, but I don't believe this wiki would be either. This isn't a big issue, but I thought this light-hearted site would give some good info on why we shouldn't utilize it here, unless others think otherwise. Comic Sans
Remove files
Okay I give up. How do you remove files from the downloaded Images and Files list? Can't see having outdated images on it. Also playing around I managed to upload a couple of files which are rather large and I don't know if the internal embedding is using them or not. If not they should be pulled. cx650t on 11 Jan 05:52 UTC
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