Wikis for Dummies

I have a LOT of books for Dummies. Some are better than others and I accept this fact readily. As a person who so infrequently uses wikis I hoped for more and was disappointed. This is not a critique of the book as it IS a good resource, I merely expected more.

I got the book for only one reason. I wanted to know how to edit an article in Wikipedia. It did tell me that. It has a chapter devoted to Wikipedia. But I also wanted to know how to create a brand new entry. The chapter, early on, says there are two ways to contribute to Wikipedia, edit an existing page or create a new one. It proceeds to tell you how to edit an existing page but says absolutely nothing about creating a new one. Enormous oversight if that's the information you're looking for. The rest of the book may be perfect, so I'm giving it 3 stars.

I obviously have been aware of the wiki thing for some time, but have not had a need to get involved in the process of creation and management of a purpose built wiki until now. This book brought me up to speed and filled the knowledge gap so I have been able to take the plunge with some confidence.I suspect that the book needs an update as some o the sites mentioned are no longer, and ultimately I have used a wiki plugin for WordPress to get the wiki going that I needed, and that idea is not in the book, but the concepts and the ideas all move quite happily.I am very happy I bought to book, and anyone who wants to explore the wiki wiki world from the point of creating or managing a wiki and feels a knowledge gap is likely to find this book quite useful.

This provides a solid overview of the history, general functions, and common uses of Wikis, and for that I am glad that I read it. One thing that I didn't consider until after I bought it -- and was using a few wikis already -- was that a great deal of the information was engine-specific. PBWiki was a common example throughout the book, but I don't use PBWiki, and I don't like the interface (I guess I got used to Wikispaces, which works perfectly for me). So although there was a great deal of good information about what I can do with a wiki, so much of the how wasn't useful to me, since I'll have to go learn the particulars of my engine of choice, rather than the ones in the book.

I like "For Dummies" books a lot, and use them fairly often.But, this one kind of talks more about the ideas behind making a wiki, and how to promote them, or ideas of managing them, rather than learning code.Also, the author promotes one particular website throughout, and pushes the reader to a particular wiki farm. If you're hosting your own wiki, and want to learn about **HOW** to make a wiki, this is not the book for you.I wanted something that was going to actually show me the Wiki Markup code (like so many other "For Dummies" books show lots of code), and there's not really an ounce of it here.If you want something like that, pass this one up.If you're thinking about making a wiki, and are trying to decide whether it's a project for you, then you *might* consider it.

What I missed most was a comparison table of Wiki markup used at various wiki sites. otherwise, I found all that I wanted, and more.

Wikis For Dummies  This is a good book if you are looking for a guide to get started. It covers the basics for starting the Wiki process and explains different ways one can use a wiki for work.I found it helpful.

I learned everything I needed to know out of the first three chapters. Also has a nice chapter on managing a wiki. It's very clear, and an very approachable how-to book. Once you get the basics from this book, you'll discover that building a wiki is really pretty intuitive. But this is a good way to get started.

HAPPY TO RECIVE AND IT WAS FAST SERVICE, THANKS

This book covers several things but the installation steps of a wiki engine is not one of these.

Une introduction intéressante aux Wikis. Des explications claires à propos des possibilités, implications, de la mise en place d'un wiki. Du point de vue implémentation, le livre met surtout l'accent sur Twiki et son installation, sans toujours aller dans les détails de configuration. Mediawiki (le plus courant et la base utilisée pour wikipedia) n'est abordé que superficiellement. Globalement, c'est un bon livre de référence pour s'informer.

Describes all Details very good. Unfortunately the given Examples are outdated. Could be a Bit more specific on vertan techniques and the practical use of taxonomies, etc.

i like most of the dummies series