CBD+Help

toc On this page I will add links to useful sites, tips and answers to frequently asked questions about wikis. Remember, Wikispaces does have a built in **Help** feature, which should always be your first port of call. It is on the upper right of the page, between "My Account" and "Sign Out." =Links=

Tutorials
Watching the Wikispaces video tours is a great way to get started. These are each less than 3 minutes. There are lots of tips and tricks for the more adventurous at Wikispace Tutorials.

Images
You are //strongly// encouraged to use photos that are taken by us while we are out and about around the city. That is one of the many advantages of being located in the city. Of course, it is not always possible, so if you must use a photo from the web be sure that it is appropriately licensed.

For images that have a Creative Commons License and are free for you to use (but you still //must// acknowledge the source), go to:
 * Wikimedia Commons
 * Google advanced image search - Under **Usage Rights** select **Labeled for commercial reuse with modification** from the drop down menu
 * Alternatively, go to Creative Commons Search and select any popular image search engine. In the tick box at the top of the page, make sure that "**//modify//, //adapt//, or //build upon//**" is selected before doing the search.

For historical images of Melbourne, search the State Library of Victoria's collection of digitised images. We do have permission to use these photos for educational purposes, but, as always, you must cite the source. =Tips=

Image resizing
For web delivery, images really need not be more than 50 KB and 300 pixels wide or high. Graphic images in black and white or with limited colour are best delivered in the GIF file format. Photorealistic images are best delivered in the JPEG file format. If images already conform to these specifications, then it can be used with no further modification. If it needs to be resized, use **GIMPshop**. GIMPshop is open source software and free for anyone to download. Click on the download link from the GIMPshop home page for either PC or Mac versions. For a short, silent video screencast of the process, download the video, but note that it is a large file (7 MB).
 * GIMPshop**
 * Always remember to copy any images you want into an "images" folder in your network folder before modifying.
 * Open GIMPshop (from the school computers operating with Windows 7, go to the Start icon, select All Programs, select the Art and Graphics folder, click on GIMPshop).
 * Select File>Open from the small "The GIMP" window and navigate to the image you wish to resize.
 * Once the image is open, select Image>Image Size... from the drop down menu. The Image Size dialogue box should open.
 * Set the image dimensions. A width of 400 pixels is a reasonable starting point. If it is already less than this, leave it as it is. Click on the Scale button. The image may appear to be very small. If so, set the view to 100% using the scale at the bottom of the image window.
 * Select File>Save As... Rename your image appropriately (see below), select File Type as "JPEG image" and click on the Save button.
 * From the "Save as JPEG" dialogue box, set the Quality to 70. Click the OK button.

Page and File naming
We will be following certain class wide conventions for naming files. This is to make things easier for YOU, so please follow them. So that your group's files are all grouped together and, therefore, easier for you to find, start all of your file names (pages and images) with your group's topic, followed by a simple descriptor for the page. For example, if you are doing Markets of Melbourne and you have created a page on the history of the markets, your page name might be "Markets History" and you might have an image of the front of the Queen Victoria Market named "Markets QVentrance." Since all pages and files are listed alphabetically, your pages and files will all be grouped together.

Creating new pages
The best (although not necessarily the easiest) way to create new pages is to create the page first //before// creating the link. For example, if I was in the "Musical Melbourne" group and I wanted to create a page on Melbourne's music venues, I would go to "New Page" link at the top of the page and create a page called "Music_Melbourne's Venues". This avoids the creation of huge page names that are automatically created from the phrase from which you are creating the link. =FAQs=

What is the Wikitext Editor?
Behind what you see on the page is code that gives formatting information. It can be useful to look at that code as you are editing. To do this, click on the down arrow next to the "Save" button on the editing toolbar. From the drop down menu, select "Wikitext editor." This will change the page from the WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) visual editor, to the wikitext editor. If you don't know what all the formatting code means, click on the "Help" link between the "My Account" and "Sign In/Out" links and select "Wikitext" under the "Reference" heading.

Why can't I put a blank line between paragraphs?
I don't have a good, simple answer to this. I know some of you have been having difficulty with putting lines between paragraphs. A blank line will appear to be there when you are in the visual editor, but the line will disappear after saving. I don't know why it happens, but I do know that if you use the Wikitext Editor instead of the Visual Editor, the extra lines will stick around after saving. If anyone comes up with a better solution to this problem, let me know and I will post it here.

How do I confirm my email address?
To confirm your email address select "My Account" from the links along the top of the page. Look at the "Details" section of the "Settings" tab. If it says your email is confirmed, you are done. If it doesn't, enter an email address that you can check regularly. "Save" your changes and check your email account. You should receive an email (if it is not there immediately, wait a few moments and check again).Follow the instructions in the email for confirming your email address.

How can I receive notification of changes to pages?
To monitor changes to any page, click on the "notify me" tab on the page. Select the "Page Edits" option if you want to monitor all edits that are made to the page. Select the "Page Discussions" option if you want to monitor anything added to the Discussion tab.I would highly recommend that you at least monitor "Page Discussions" on each of your own pages and monitor "Page Edits" for this page. To do this you will need to have confirmed your email address and regularly check your email.

How do I import my mindmap?
To add your mindmap to a page, you will first need to save it as an image file. Open up your mindmap in Inspiration. Click on the "File" drop down menu and select "Export..." Click on the Graphics File tab and select the File Format as GIF (if just text) and a JPEG (if it includes images). This can then be uploaded to your wiki as an image. The screen captures below illustrate how to do this within Inspiration.