YWAMKnowledgeBase:FAQ
From YWAMKnowledgeBase
How can I find what I'm looking for?
There are many ways of accessing the material. Perhaps in decreasing order of importance -- although that will be debated and Kev will probably disagree with me!
- Type a word(s) into the search box on the top right and click search.
- Click on Categories in the box on the left and chose the one you need.
- click your way around starting with the nine headings on the right of the main page. We have tried to make it intuitive, if you don't like the structure make suggestions on how to improve it.
- Do a google search from your internet browser -- I use google.com because I like the eyes they creatively put into the two o's. I add the word ywamkb and a colon ywamkb: and it seems to get there pretty directly.
- look at the list of all the pages. Click on All Pages in the box on the left.
How can I add some material?
First of all you must register. To do that, click on the top right of the screen where it says 'log in/create account'. Then follow the directions to start a new account. Once you have registered you may do whatevery you like!!!
- Go to the Main Page and click on the box that says, "Start Here". There are many helpful articles in our help section.
- You can also do a Google search for Mediawiki... and come up with something like this "How to edit a page"
- Why not print off this
PDF and stick it up next to your computer!
- If you want a WYSIWYG editor like a standard Wordprocessor you might be a little disappointed as there are not many but look at this page for some possibilities.
- If you want to you can always email an article to Kevin or Steve and we will post them for you. However you contribution will be logged under their user names! Don't worry about posting badly formatted articles - someone will help you out! JUST ADD YOUR STUFF!
How will others find what I've added?
By adding categories to my material.
Here is a comment I found on http://om.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Diroma_Elias#Categories that addresses the issue.
... Categorization is not happening automatically. There are not "category bots", as we have interwiki bots.
You have to categorise pages yourself. And you should definitely not give up on that, as categories are one of the central means to keep a wikipedia edition organised. Without them, everything becomes a mess.
Adding a category to an article is really simple.
- Activate My Preferences > Gadgets > HotCat
- Click on the Plus sign beneath the article. The box suggests the already-existing categories.
How can I edit a page?
Log in, find your way to the page and click on the edit tab at the top of the page. Editing is done in the box. I like to have a couple of explorer/firefox tabs open so I can look at a couple of things at a time and one of the pages I often have open is the page How to write in wiki. It tells how to make headings, change font size, make a table, include a picture or a pdf file and more. It can be found by clicking on Help, then How to write in wiki.
It helps to regularly click on the Show Preview button at the bottom of the page to make sure you are doing it right.
Then you must MUST must click on Save Page when you are happy with it and before you move on or it won't be and all the work will be for nothing. Bon chance steve
Who should add or edit the material?
All of us. This is our resource to capture all that we know about training. Everything can be improved, everyone has something to add.
What about other languages?
We are not Anglo-centric here. The concept of "Mind the Gap" is very important to us and we are aware that very soon YWAM will be staffed by a majority of non-westerners. So multiple language support is vital for the future of the wiki. Our current vision and plan is available in the Community Portal section. Please have a look and help out. We need Dutch, German, Korean, Spanish, Portuguese and French KB's!
We use the same Mediawiki software that Wikipedia uses so it should be very possible to implement parallel language sites like this. If you are interested in helping set up other languages then please get in touch!
There are no plans before 2008 to implement translations although you could change that!
What if someone hacks the site and changes it and we don't like it?
Since we started running the wiki this has happened only once. And that was by a spam software program and not a human being directly.
Kevin simply blocked the user and with one click, reverted to the previous version. And we included a 'captcha' extension that will exclude bots logging on and changing things -- cool eh!
It is just not a problem. I you ever find anything you feel is vandelism please report it, and undo the damage if you can.
Security, help, can't everyone read this?
Yes, anyone can read this and, if they register, they too can add to and edit what's there.
Is that a problem? Not really.
If I have anything that must not be seen by others I just won't post here. We want this knowledge base to be very accessible to all of us so that everyone can add to and improve it. There is little to lose and much to gain by having it very freely accessible. If people put untoward things on it, Kevin and Steve can rollback the changes to remove them.
Can I use Word as my wordprocessor (or Wordpro) to prepare material for the wiki?
- I'll tell you what I do. In Wordpro I am very careful to use the style sheets consistently - the main headings are called Heading 1, sub headings are Heading 2, if I have sub sub headings they are called Heading 3. And then I use bullets and number lists and for everything, default text. I am very consistent with this; if you aren't then I suggest you do so. It is the same for Microsoft Word.
- Next, download the free and superb open office from OpenOffice.org and start OpenOffice Writer. (This is the free and terrific word processor). You need version 2.3 or higher.
- Open your document in OpenOffice
- Choose File/Export. From the menu at the bottom of the screen there is a list of ways to export it. You want "Mediawiki". Save the file perhaps with an extension of .wiki or .txt
- Open this new file with any editor (or OpenOffice)
- Now go to the page in the KnowledgeBase you want and cut and paste the document into that page.
- And then click 'Show Preview' or 'Save page' and see how good it looks. You may need to fiddle a bit with it but it should have worked.
It may well be that you find Openoffice a viable and cheaper solution for your word processing and other needs.
NEW: You can now publish a document directly to the wiki from within OpenOffice (version 2.4+) using the MediaWiki publisher extension. It works well and is a great way to get documents onto the Kb quickly. But please note you will want to see point one above! The better structured your document in the first place the better the results!
As an example this look at the following page and read the discussion on that page. God's Government
How do I delete a page?
You must send a message to Kevin or Steve. Only sysops can delete a page. But we are happy to do what you suggest. You can also mark the page for deletion by adding {{delete}} to the text.
I would say however that this limitation irks me but we are stuck with it, sorry. Feel free to email us: kevin@ywambrussels.be stephenrsullivan@gmail.com
I made some notes in a lecture, can I download them onto the knowledge base?
Yes. As I understand it, the notes I make in a lecture are in the public domain. They are my notes and not the speakers. Handouts during a lecture are probably not in the same category and I ought to ask the speaker if I can post them. Kevin and I will keep and eye on this and see if the situation changes.
How can I make tables?
Best place I've found is on this page on the mediawiki site
Help:Tables
I forgot my Login and I can't log in! What can I do?
Contact one of the Help Desk folks and they will help you retrieve it! Look at the User list page tool it has an Alphabetical list of users. (Special:Listusers)
