PBworks Tutorial
Overview and Application
This learning unit provides an overview of wikis with a specific focus on creating and editing a wiki using PBworks. Take a look at the video below for a simple explanation of how a wiki works.
Upon successful completion of this learning unit, you will have:
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The following summary lists this tutorial's assignments:
A. Introduction to Wikis
B. Overview of the PBWorks Workspace Features
A. Create a PBworks account
B. Set up your account
C. Create a page
D. Add and modify text
E. Upload and link to a file/image
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The first wiki was created by Warwick Cunningham and posted on the Internet in 1995. He called the site Wiki Wiki Web. The word wiki is Hawaiian for quick. In simple terms, a wiki is a collection of web pages that can be easily edited by multiple authors--even if those people only possess basic computer skills. Because of this, a wiki is a perfect tool for collecting and sharing information.
Wikipedia is probably the most familiar wiki. There are millions of articles on Wikipedia written by thousands of contributors around the world. New information is added every day. It is quite common that within minutes of a major event, its details are already posted on the site. |
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As people view a traditional web page, the information generally flows in one direction. As readers explore the pages, they can read the articles as well as view or download files, images, or video segments that may be posted on the site. |
Web 2.0 tools, including wikis, blogs, and podcasts are based on an entirely different concept. The main premise is that all viewers may also be contributors to the content on the Web. Therefore, information flows in two directions. |
The communication has an authoritarian--"this is the way it is" feel. Viewers had access to all the material, but they generally didn't add any new information. |
Web 2.0 tools are more democratic and bottom-up. Wikis are all about building interaction and shared content. Some people may use the site to access information, while others may use the tool for collaboration that allows them to share information with others when they aren't able to meet face-to-face. |
Web 1.0 sites were static and rarely changed |
Wiki sites are dynamic and change often, reflecting all of the user contributions. |
Web 1.0 sites were closed. Only the Webmaster could add and edit content. |
Wikis are collaborative. The responsibility of maintaining the site is shared.
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PBworks launched in 2005 as PBwiki. It changed its name to PBworks in April, 2009 to reflect its expanded services. The PB stands for "peanut butter" in reference to the idea that PBworks makes setting up a wiki as easy as making a peanut butter sandwich.
According to the PBworks press room (2010), PBworks (http://pbworks.com) is the world's leading provider of hosted businesses and education wikis. PBworks hosts more than three times as many pages of content as the English language version of Wikipedia. They host over a million team workspaces and serve over three users per month. Companies and organizations such as FedEx, DePaul University, the Mayo Clinic, and the FDA utilize PBworks to collaborate across geographic and organizational boundaries. PBworks was featured as one of the 30 new media tools and web sites for writing teachers in eLearn Magazine (2010).
PBworks offers a number of predefined packages, but educators and students can request an ad-free site by designating the wiki for educational use. Support is available through e-mail and a user-friendly online manual. PBworks also offers free online training and archived videos of past training sessions.
PBworks has options for public and private sites. Sites and specific pages can be password protected. Features include RSS alerts, HTML support, built-in search capabilities, various file storage options, revision history, one-click ability to backup the wiki, SSL encrypted access, three premade skins for free users, and unlimited customization for premium users.
PBworks has a point and click editing option for Word document-style editing. Users can easily add content and underline, italicize, or bold words, and insert images, links, tables, and plugins without the use of special codes.
PBworks has a robust notification system that can notify users via e-mail when pages on the workspace changes. You can control the frequency of these notifications by selecting the MyPBworks tab at the top of your wiki.
Scroll to the bottom of the page and click to open the drop-down menu and select how often you want to be notified of changes. The default is Right Away.
The first time you log onto your wiki, this is what the home page (or FrontPage in PBworks) looks like in View mode. The left side of the page contains the content. The right side contains administrative and navigational links and windows. The Navigator, SideBar, Share this workspace, and Recent Activity modules can be rearranged, reduced, expanded, and even hidden.
Click on the bottom handle of each window and drag it down to show more items. You can minimize each module by clicking the small (^) button in the top right corner of each box.
Other helpful features on the page are being able to hide and retrieve the right panel of workspace and page tools to expand the main content area to better view a spreadsheet, table, or image. Click the triangle in the top right. NOTE: This is just a personal preference. The right panel is the default display for all users.
You can also click to get a printable version of the page and access the Page History, where a list of links to page revisions are stored. Here you can browse, compare, or revert to previous page revisions.
The View and Edit tabs in the top left corner of the page show you what mode you're accessing the page content in.
The View tab shows you a web page on the workspace: you're looking at the rendered HTML and images that have been added to the page. This is what users see first when they encounter your workspace.
The Edit tab puts you into Edit mode and allows you to modify the contents on the page. You must be an approved user and signed in to edit a page.
Every editable page on your wiki has an associated page history, which is accessed by clicking the Page History link at the top of the content area in View mode. The page history contains a list of the page's previous revisions, including the number of times the pages had been revised, the date and time of each edit, and the name of user who made it. The dates and times represent every time the page had been saved. No more "The dog ate my homework." You can easily verify who made what changes and when.
You can click on the date and time to see any revision. You can also select two different revisions to compare the differences. If you would like to revert to another revisions, just click the "Revert to this version" link at the top of the page revision. The previous version will then become the current view. In this way, you can monitor content to make sure it is appropriate and repair any inadvertant deletions. |
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Create a Page: This feature is only available to users with at least Writer-level access.
Upload files: Following this link brings you to the All Files view of the Pages & Files manager. To upload a new file or file revision, begin by clicking on the "Upload files" button. You must have at least Writer-level access to upload files. Note: To upload multiple files, simply select multiple files when browsing the files on your computer and click the Open button. You are limited to 10 files at one time.
Share this page: Click this link to send an email to a specific user of the workspace about the current page. You can also send your own custom message, along with the link.
Put this page in a folder: This link allows you to sort the current page into an existing folder.
Add Tags: You have two options for adding keyword tags to the page. This option is available in View mode. The other option is available at the bottom of the page in Edit mode. Adding tags to your page is helpful for organizing and finding pages. For more details on using page tags, please click HERE.
Control access to this page: This feature is only available to Premium site subscribers.
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Workspace pages can be placed into folders, and doing so is one way to better organize your workspace. The Pages & Files tab in the top left of the page is one way to view the contents of folders, but the Navigator on the page is there so you don't have to navigate away from the current page to see what other pages are available to you in the workspace. Once you create folders in the Pages & Files manager, they'll automatically appear in this Navigator. Until you file your pages and files in a folder, they can be found in the Unfiled Items folder.
The SideBar appears on the right panel of your workspace no matter what page you're viewing. You can edit the SideBar by clicking on the "Edit the sidebar" link at the bottom. Because the Sidebar appears on every workspace page, it's a great place to insert important page links to provide users with the most useful pages of your workspace.
Share this workspace allows you to enter e-mail addresses to add users to your workspace with Writer-level permissions. Since they are the only ones authorized to add users, this window is only displayed for Administrators.
The Recent Activity window provides details on recent changes to the wiki.
Tip: It is generally a good idea to decide on an organizational plan when you first develop your wiki. Then you can create the folder ahead of time and designate folders when you create pages.
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The Pages & Files area allows you to manager and organize your data in PBworks. These are some of the operations you can perform if you are logged in and added to the users list. NOTE: The options in blue can also be completed from any page without having to go to the Pages & Files Manager.
If you opt to make your workspace private, then you will need to add users by their individual e-mail address, and assign them a permission level on the workspace. A description of each permission level is below. Only Administrators can add and remove users. For more information on adding/removing users and permission roles.
Administrator
Administrators of a workspace can see, edit, and change all content within a workspace, and have access to the workspace's settings. Being an Administrator at the Workspace Level does not mean that a user has access to the settings of the network. Network Users who create workspaces in the network are automatically added as the Administrator at the workspace level. However, this just gives them direct access to the content they add, and have the ability to add users.
Network Administrators (users set to Administrator at the network level) can only be added as Administrators of any workspace.
Editor
Editors have all the same access to the workspace as Administrators, except they have no access to the workspace's settings. Editors of a workspace cannot add new users to the workspace or change the Workspace's Security settings (or any settings). They are able to add and delete content from the workspace.
Writer
Writers have all the same access to the workspace as Editors, except they cannot delete any information from the workspace. Writers can only add new pages and files to the workspace and edit existing ones. They are not able to delete content from the workspace.
Reader
Readers can only view content in the workspace and download uploaded files. They cannot upload new files, nor can they change any files on the workspace. If you need content to be "Read-only" add the users to the workspace the content is in as "Reader".
Page Level Only
Page Level Only is the most narrow definition of Workspace security. With Page Level Only, you're granting access for the user to log in, but the user has no access to any pages by default. You must edit the custom security at either the Folder Level or the Page Level to allow them to have access. This is best to use if you want to add a user, but only want to expose them to a very small amount of information on the workspace. Also, customizing security is not available in the free service, so if using the free service, do not set any of your users to this permission level until you upgrade.
Refer to the chart below for an explanation of each individual setting. If you make any changes to this setting, you must click the Save button in order to set the changes. If you navigate away from the settings page, your changes will not be set.
Setting | Function |
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This is the title which appears at the top of every PBworks page. For example, the title of the workspace created for this tutorial is: mypracticewiki1. By default, this is your workspace name, but you can change it to any text. While workspace names cannot contain spaces, the Title can. So we can change it to include spaces and upper and lower case: My Practice Wiki |
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This is a short description of the workspace that is visible to users when they attempt to log in. Since this is a public facing setting, do not include any sensitive information in this field.
Anonymous users can see this field without logging in. Also, due to the risk of spam, you probably also want to avoid putting an email address in this field. If users want to contact you, they'll be able to do so through the "Contact the owner" link on the login page, which does not reveal your email address. |
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This is the time zone which your workspace is set to. Select the time which is closest to your own local time. This effects the times and dates that users see in the page history of each page.
Note: Currently, this does not shift with Daylight Savings Time. If you live in a region which changes their clocks due to DST, you'll have to manually update this setting each time the clocks change. However, once you change the time in this setting, the change will be reflected in the history of all workspace pages.
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Setting the keyboard language may improve the compatibility of PBworkspace's editor if you're using a browser with a foreign language character set. However, changing this setting affects no page content in the workspace, and the tools for PBworks will still appear in English. |
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This is the email address that gets the messages that are sent in the workspace's contact form. By default, this is the creator of the workspace, but you can set this address to any address you want.
Note: Changing this address does not change the owner of the workspace. To change the owner of the workspace, the only Administrator with the authorization to delete the entire workspace, you must contact Support.
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If you make any changes to this setting, you must click the Save button in order to set the changes. If you navigate away from the settings page, your changes will not be set. |
You can set the color scheme on your workspace by clicking on Settings in the upper left corner of your workspace. Click on Colors on the left hand side. On all workspaces, you can select one of the 9 pre-defined color schemes (highlighted with yellow in the image below).
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Admins of premium workspaces can set their own Custom Color Template (highlighted in green) to have more control of the workspace's colors. This option is disabled on basic workspaces. |
To begin creating your own personal PBworks workspace, you first need to create an account.
A workspace is a collection of files and pages that is stored on a subdomain of PBworks. When you sign up and create your own workspace, you'll create a new subdomain of PBworks.com.
Go to the e-mail address that you entered in the previous step. Open the confirmation e-mail from PBworks. Click on the link to go to your wiki. Sign in.
No matter what edition of the PBworks service you use, you are in complete control of who can access your data. You initially have two decisions to make:
You can adjust these settings in your workspace at any time by clicking on Settings tab in the upper left hand corner, and then Workspace Security on the left hand side.
In Edit mode, the menu at the top of the page looks very much like familiar word processing applications. In addition, PBworks allows users to add a series of plugins. A plugin is small widget or program that enhances productivity such as YouTube videos or a calendar. Notice that the modules on the right side have changed. You can now rename the page, insert new pages, and upload images and files. At the bottom of the page, you can edit the tags (keywords) associated with each page, which helps with user searches.
The font styling buttons work just like the buttons in most word processor programs. Select the text in the editing area you want to change, and click the button to change the formatting. You can also change the size and style.
Common Features
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Additional options:
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The Insert Plugin tool allows you to select from a number of productivity and enhancement plugins. When you click this button, a menu will appear which will let you choose from the many plugins PBworks offers. The plugins will be inserted where the cursor is, when the Insert Plugin button is clicked.
When you click the link, you'll see the following menu of categories and options. Mouse over the category name and a list of available plugins will appear. Click to choose the plugin you want to use.
Once you choose a plugin, the Insert Plugin window similar to the one below appears. The image below shows the option for embedding a YouTube video on the wiki page. All you need to do is find the YouTube video, copy the Embed code and paste it in the box below. Click the Next button to preview the video. If you are satisfied, click the Insert Plugin button in the bottom right corner.
In Edit mode, you will only see a green placeholder for the plugin. Click Save to see the video.
In Edit mode, the Insert Links options will be available on the right side of the page. You will have the option of creating a link to a page in your wiki or linking to any uploaded files/images.
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To link to a wiki page
Uploaded files are not easily viewable by all users unless you create link to them on one of your wiki pages. To link to an uploaded file
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To link to an outside web page or e-mail address
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In Edit mode, the Insert Links options will be available on the right side of the page. This tool also allows for the uploading of PowerPoint presentations, Word Documents, Spreadsheets, pictures, etc.
Upload File
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To insert the image, just click on the file name and the image will appear on the page You have the option of previewing the image by rolling your cursor over the file name
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Insert image from URL A new feature allows you to insert an image directly from the URL instead of having to save it and upload it to the wiki.
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Using the information presented on editing your wiki, complete the following:
Remember: You can also access the PBworks User Manual for additional help.
Check out the Educational Editions links for information specific to educators.
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In this tutorial you have:
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PBworks Press Room: http://pbworks.com/content/pressroom
PBworks User Manual: http://usermanual.pbworks.com/
mypracticewiki1: http://mypracticewiki1.pbworks.com/