Help file for RikiTikiWiki

RikiTikiWiki© Help

RikiTikiWiki© is a desktop wiki, an information sharing tool for collecting and organizing shared knowledge.

Shortened from the Hawaiian word for quickly (wikiwiki), wiki has also been described by the “backronym” What I Know Is.

Wiki software provides a framework for organizing a freely expandable collection of hyperlinked pages. Documents are authored collectively using a simple markup scheme and without the content being reviewed prior to its acceptance. The resulting collaborative hypertext document, called a "wiki", is typically produced by a community of users.

RikiTikiWiki© automatically indexes new pages, permitting a powerful global search function. Wiki also tracks page edits (who and when), and provides the ability to roll back changes.

The original WikiWikiWeb was established in 1995 by Ward Cunningham, who invented and named the Wiki concept and produced the first implementation of a WikiWiki server. RikiTikiWiki© is based on Notebook, a desktop wiki written by Will Duquette.

Help topics

Overview

The RikiTikiWiki© main window contains four functional areas. From top to bottom these areas are:

Menu
Toolbar
WikiPage Display and Editor
Status bar

Menu functions

The menu is accessed by clicking on the menu bar along the top of the main window.

File
- Print - print a hard copy of the current WikiPage
- Exit - Exit the RikiTikiWiki program
Edit
In addition to the following menu choices, the editor also supports standard Windows editing shortcuts (Ctrl + Key combination):
- Undo - Ctrl + Z
- Redo - Ctrl + Y
- Cut - Ctrl + X
- Copy - Ctrl + C
- Paste - Ctrl + V
- Find - Ctrl + F
- Copy Page - Ctrl + A - Copies the current page into the clipboard.
Page
- Edit this page - Ctrl + E
- Rename this page
- Refresh page - Reload from the database
- Delete page
- Go To Page - Enter WikiWord for a page
- Go To Home
- List recent changes
  List pages which have recently been edited.
Help
- RikiTikiWiki Help - View this help file
- Wiki Markup Help - View markup help file
- About - View the program information dialog

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Toolbar buttons

Toolbar buttons appear along the top of main window, under the menu bar.

In Viewing mode, the toolbar has the following buttons.

Exit - Exit the RikiTikiWiki program
Home - Return to the home page
Up - View parent of current page
Previous - View previous page in browse history
Next - View the next page in browse history
History - View edit history of the current page
Edit - Enter edit mode
Help - View this help file
Search - Type in a search term and press enter to search.
Search options can be changed by clicking the drop down to the right of the input area.

In Editing mode, the toolbar has the following buttons.

Editing tools - Menu of editing functions
Revert - Cancel all edits, start over again.
Up is disabled during editing.
Previous is disabled during editing.
Next is disabled during editing.
Save edits - Save all edits and reload the new page
Cancel edits - Cancel all edits and reload the original page
Help - View this help file
Search - this input is disabled during editing.
To search the current page, use the shortcut Ctrl + F.

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Navigating the wiki

The wiki is a hypertext document. You navigate through the wiki just like you would a web page:

Click on a hyperlink to display the page or document it is linked to.

You can also search the wiki by entering text in the search box and pressing the Enter key.

The wiki contains three pages with special functionality:

Home
The starting point, the page loaded when you first start the wiki. Starting from Home you can navigate to any page by clicking on the hyperlinks.
Sandbox
A learning page, a place for hands on learning wiki markup. The Sandbox shows you how to emphasize text with italics, bold, indents, bulleted lists, headers, tables, etc. And how to create links and embed images.
What's New
The What's New page is an automatic log page, allowing you to easily create a news topic for the current date. Just click the "Add New Entry" button.

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Editing wiki pages

Click on the Edit icon (looks like a pencil) to switch to edit mode.

Notice the status in the bottom left changes to "EDITING", and the fixed-font editor overlays the display page.

The editor supports the usual Windows editing short cuts, such as:

Undo - Ctrl + Z
Redo - Ctrl + Y
Cut - Ctrl + X
Copy - Ctrl + C
Paste - Ctrl + V
Find - Ctrl + F

Ctrl + A functions somewhat differently in that it copies the current page into the clipboard. This is useful when you wish to copy information from a previous version of a page, thus allowing you to rollback changes.

RikiTikiWiki© uses the Creole markup language to add style and functionality to the page. Please read the "Wiki Markup Help" topic for information on how to create links, emphasize text with italics, bold type, indents, bulleted lists, headers, tables, etc.

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Searching wiki pages

In Viewing mode

Type the search term(s) in the input area and press the enter key.
Search options can be changed by clicking the drop down to the right of the input area.
To search for an exact phrase: "enclose the phrase in quotes".
Search will highlight the first match on a page. To find the next match on a page, press the F3 key.

In Editing mode

The input area is disabled during editing.
To search the page currently being edited, use the shortcut Ctrl + F.

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Status bar

The status bar appears at the bottom of the main window. From left to right the information displayed is:

Mode: Viewing, Editing, or Adding
Date the current WikiPage was created
Windows login of the individual who created the current WikiPage
Date the current WikiPage was updated
Windows login of the individual who updated the current WikiPage
Link target: displays the target of a link when the mouse hovers over it.

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Feedback

Please, your feedback and suggestions for improving the program are welcome and encouraged!

Please email your comments and suggestions to

Thank you.

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This software is free for educational, non-commercial use. Donations are accepted. Source code is available upon request.

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