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Getting Started with PBWorks

Page history last edited by Dmitry Sokolov 6 years, 4 months ago

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKuFrSIl-y8

Looking for an Alternative to Basecamp: Review of PBworks Project Edition

What Basecamp calls a project PBworks calls a workspace. Here in PBworks each workspace dwells under a separate subdomain. So, if we (Turbomilk, the company) do a project for company XYZ, all the communication will be concentrated under turbomilk-XYZ.pbworks.com.

Here is how a new project’s (workspace’s, to be exact) homepage looks like:

The main difference from Basecamp: a project does not appear like a blog. I.e. the pages are not places in a linear sequence but live independently and link to each other when necessary. At first, such freedom is discouraging. It becomes obvious that the system will require extra efforts to keep all the necessary information at the fingertips: placing links, placing pages into folders and assigning tags to them. Frankly speaking, I should say that it is not always easy to find the required information in Basecamp, especially if we are talking about a lengthy project. The tags for instance would come really handy.

In PBworks you can mark any page with one or several tags. For instance, we can introduce tag “sketch” and placing “tag:sketch” in the search box will show us all the pages with sketches. All the tags and pages marked with tags can be seen at “yourworkspace”.pbworks.com/tags.php address. However, it is very displeasing that the address should be placed manually in a browser’s URL box (no link as such is available in the navigation). It is likely that the answer to it lies in the software’s heritage of being a product for wiki-enthusiasts who can do it all. But even such tag handling is better than nothing. Besides, any links forgotten by the developers can be easily added to the SideBar panel:

You can add anything to this panel and it will be visible on all pages within a workspace. It is extremely useful!

Yet another handy function helping at keeping all required information at your fingertips is stars. Any page can be marked with a star and unlike tags the stars are individual for every user. In other words you will not be able to see stars left by another user. You can easily see the pages marked with stars in the navigator to the right:

Another important difference from Basecamp is notifications. In Basecamp we add project members to the notification mailing list each time we create a message. On the contrary, in PBworks each user selects when he wants to be notified. By default a user gets hourly notification on changes in any pages, if such changes have been introduced. If you wish, you can, for example, order notifications only upon making changes to the starred pages and not more frequently than once a day:

But is it necessary for the guest users, i.e. customer representatives, to receive hourly updates on every sneeze from our side? Of course not. In order to keep the customer away from the irrelevant details, we can set up the access rights for each page individually:

Pages in PBworks are edited using a visual editor with enriched text-formatting features. It clearly appears to be typical for any contemporary wiki-engines. Today it is rather hard to make a user learn the special wiki language, and obviously it is not the case here.

And, of course, just like any other wiki engine, PBworks saves various versions of pages. It is similar to what Basecamp offers in the Writeboards section. User is enabled to review older versions, compare versions and undo them if necessary. And all these features are available for every page. You can, for instance, create a page with a complete description of task and introduce changes to the task as you go along. Unlike Basecamp where we introduce extra changes and sentences to the original text as comments, in PBworks you can simply edit the text without worrying about saving the original – it is handled automatically.

All of the above are the features of a contemporary, useful and rather nice wiki engine. But what really stands behind the “Project Edition” tag in the name? First of all, as I understand, it refers to the ability of introducing “free of charge” guest users into a workspace. Otherwise we could hardly talk about using this project for communicating with clients in a small service company, since the customers would easily outnumber the employees, and it would be rather hard to pay for each user for being too costly.

Besides, every workspace features a special section called “Project”. You can use it for setting milestones and assigning tasks:

 

It is obvious that this section is a side add-on to the system, and, as such, it is not it’s strongest side. But even in Basecamp milestones and tasks are far from being the most important things. The main thing is communication!

So what is the bottom line? We need to say that the developers of PBworks have paid a titanic effort making their product more fit to the general people out there. However, wiki is always wiki and to be able to work with it one should be a little bit a wiki-psycho. Just a little bit. PBworks gives a much larger degree of freedom in organizing information than Basecamp, and you should be able to handle this freedom to avoid turning it into a chaos. If you are ready for it, the software is worth it.

For the most patient readers who read it up to here we have a special offer: tell us in two words why you are interested in this product and you will get PBworks Project Edition for 30 days absolutely free. In addition to that specially trained staff will help you set up the system. Clearly, the last part of the offer is the most essential part. A standard trial without any help from trainers) can be easily accessed at PBworks official site without any extra help from our side.

https://pbworksadmintraining.pbworks.com/w/page/15074847/Wiki%20Basics

Getting Started with your PBworks

 

Edit your page

PBworks is very similar to working with Microsoft word!  To edit the wiki, click the edit button at the top of the screen. You can tell you are in edit mode when editor toolbar is shown.  This looks different from the 'view' mode.  Make your edits and then click "Save" to finalize and publish those changes. You can edit pages just as you would if you were doing word processing --  text and graphics appear exactly as when viewed on the workspace page.

 

Practice on your own workspace.  On the front page, click edit and look for the toolbar to see that you're in edit mode.  Make a change to the front page, then chose save.  It's that easy!

 

The icons on the toolbar should look pretty familar to you, they are the universal symbols used on text editors (like microsoft word).  To learn more about the items in the toolbar, there are more instructions available on the PBworks User Manual

 

Video about how to edit

Editing a page from Support Center on Vimeo.

 



Create new pages

Once you learn how to edit a page, it's time to start to create your wiki by adding more pages.  In the upper right corner of your workspace, you'll see a link to create a page.  Click on this link to create your first page. On the next page you should chose a name for your page and click "create page."

 

Tada!  Your page is created and is already in edit mode.  

 

More instructions available on the PBworks User Manual 

 

Video about new pages

Create a Page from Support Center on Vimeo.



Create a Folder

Folders are the best way to maintain organization on your wiki.  There are two ways to create folders.

  1. From the workspace page
    1. While in view mode, look at the page tools box
    2. Chose "put this page in a folder"
    3. Create a new folder. 
    4. Your page will immediately be placed in that new folder.
  2. From Pages and Files
    1. While in view mode, look at the workspace tools box and click on the pages and files link.  (This is the place where you have a list of all the pages and all the files on your workspace.)
    2. Click the "New" button and choose "Create a folder:
    3. The new folder will appear immediately, with the default name being "New folder name."  Replace this text with the name you want the new folder to be.  When you are done typing the name, hit Enter or Return on your keyboard to set the name.

 

More instructions available on the PBworks User Manual 

 

Video about Folders

Create a Folder from Support Center on Vimeo.



Put page into a folder

There are two ways to put a page in a folder:

 

  1. From the workspace page
    1. While in view mode, look at the page tools box
    2. Click "Put this page in a folder."  If the page is already in a folder, the text will say "Put this page in a different folder."
    3. choose the folder you'd like this page to be in from the drop-down choices.  The top choice of "(no folder)" will move the page to Unfiled items.  If you pick the second choice, "Create a new folder...", you will be prompted to supply a name for the new folder.
  2. From Pages and Files
    1. While in view mode, look at the workspace tools box and click on the pages and files link.
    2. Select the page or pages you wish to move by checking their respective checkboxes
    3. Click the Move button.
    4. Click on the folder you want to move the page to, and click "Move".

 

More instructions available on the PBworks User Manual 

 

Page in a folder video

Pages Into Folders from Support Center on Vimeo.



Tag your page

A tag as a simple category name, a way to label your page.  Tag pages with a students name, or with the lesson.  When you want to find all the pages by that student or related to that lesson, you can search for the tag. To add a page tage:

  1. From view mode look for the page tools box.
  2. Click the "Add Tags" link
  3. Add your tag.

 

Video about Tags

Page Tags from Support Center on Vimeo.



Linking

Its important to learn how to link your wiki pages to other pages, or other sites on the internet.  There are many ways to link pages:

  1. Use the Insert Link box on the right of your workspace
    1. Highlight a word you wish to use as the link to the page.
    2. From the insert link box, chose the page you want to link to.

This option becomes increasingly difficult as you create more pages.  I prefer the second option:

  1. Use the insert link option on the toolbar (The world paperclip icon)
    1. Highlight a word you wish to use as the link to the page.
    2. Click on the “Insert/Edit Link” tool in the toolbar
    3. From the drop down menu, chose the type of page you want to link to (another page or folder on your wiki, a page on the web, an email address)
    4. Click "OK" to insert the link.
    5.  

More instructions available on the PBworks User Manual 

 

Link pages, URL, email and more!

Creating Links on Pages from Support Center on Vimeo.

 

Linking to Files from Support Center on Vimeo.

 

Linking to External Webpages from Support Center on Vimeo.

 

Linking to Email Addresses from Support Center on Vimeo.

 


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