CoWeb Tips and Tricks
Making Links
Images and Files
Lists
Formatting Shortcuts
User Comment Boxes
Making Links
Create a new page: To create a link, put it between *'s. (e.g. *My New Page*). The link shows up with a 'create' button next to it; clicking on this button creates the new page.
Existing Coweb page: If the page exists in the Coweb (e.g. *Existing Page's Name*), a link to that page shows up on save.
External webpage: If the link is external (e.g. *http://www.yahoo.com*), a link to that external page shows up.
Aliases: You can also alias all these links using >. So, you can create a link like this:
*My Alias>A Valid Page Name*.
The link will show up as 'My Alias', but link to 'My Valid Page Name'. For images, the alias text will become the alternate text for the image. This is the same as using <A HREF> in HTML.
Anchors: You can add anchors to places in the text by adding a line starting with @, such as
@My Section
You can then create a link to that section using * and a @. So,
*My Valid Page@My Section*
will link to 'My Section' on the 'My Valid Page' page. If the section is on the same page that you are linking from, you can omit the page name (e.g. My Section).
Images: If the link is an image (URL ends in gif, jpeg, jpg, or png), the image is inlined.
Email: If the link is an email address (e.g. self@mail.me.com), a link to mail that person shows up.
Images & Files
Uploading Images & Files: You can upload images and files to the Coweb by clicking on the attach link at the top of any Coweb page. Use browse to find the image/file. You will notice some options for uploading below the browsing box. If you choose "upload to the page", you will only be able to reference (make a link) to that image/file on that specific Coweb page. If you choose "upload to the Swiki", you will be able to reference to that image/file from any Coweb page.
Referencing Images & Files: To reference an uploaded file (uploaded using attach), put it between *+ and +*. For example,
*+myupload.html+*
will create a link to the uploaded file myupload.html. If the file is an image (ends in gif, jpeg, jpg, or png), the image is inlined.
Lists
Using lines starting with #'s and -'s creates a list.
Bulleted List: A block of lines, where each line starts with - is transformed into a bulleted list, where each line is an entry.
Numbered/Ordered List: A block of lines, where each line starts with # is transformed into an ordered list, where each line is an entry.
- this is
- a numbered/ordered list
Nested Lists: Lists can be nested. Thus, a line starting with #- (pound dash) is an element of a bulleted list that is part of an ordered list.
Using # and #-
- this is
- numbered list
Using - and –
Using # and ##
- this is
- a nested numbered
- numbered list
Using - and -#
- this is
- a nested numbered
- bulleted list
Formatting Shortcuts
Carriage Returns: Carriage returns are preserved. So you don’t need to use
to force a line break. Just hit return.
Text/Header Sizes: A line starting with !'s becomes a header line. The more !'s, the more important the header is. For example,
!!subject will show up as subject
which is <h2>subject</h2> in HTML. Up to three !'s can be used.
Bold, Italic, Underline: This works just like HTML.
- To make something bold, surround it by <b> and </b>.
- To make something italics, surround it by <i> and </i>.
- To make something underlined, surround it by <u> and </u>.
Tables: To create a table, start off the lines with | and separate the elements with |'s. Each new line represents a new row of the table.
| Here is | a really easy | to make table |
| bold | italic | underlined |
Horizontal Lines: A line starting with _ (an underscore) becomes a horizontal line. This is often used to separate topics. This is the same as using <HR> to create a line in HTML.
Preformatted Text: To create a preformatted section, begin each line with =. A preformatted section uses equally spaced text so that spacing is preserved. This works like using <pre> in html.
Typing this into a CoWeb:
hello world
hello world
hello world
Produces:
hello world
hello world
hello world
You need to type:
=hello world
= hello world
= hello world
Using HTML: In certain cases, you may want to import HTML from another program. To do this, simply put the HTML between and , and the Coweb formatting rules will not apply.
Special Characters: There are three characters &, <, > that have special meaning in HTML. Also, Swiki adds two characters *, @ to that list. In order to have these characters show up in plain text, you will have to alias them. This is the mapping for these characters:
& maps to &
< maps to <
> maps to >
* maps to ☆
@ maps to &at;
These mapping can be used in page names too. For example, a new Coweb page named ‘Dine In & Take Out’ would be typed as:
*Dine In & Take Out*
User Comment Boxes
Creating a User Comment Box: To add an "add to this page area", begin a line with +. This will turn into a text area in the view mode, so users can add to the page without editing. This can be used to stop people from deleting a page's content; simply add the + line and lock the page; now, users are able to add, but not delete. Whatever follows the initial + will be added on a separate line before the comment. This can be used to do several things:
- Beginning the line with +_ (plus underscore) will separate comments by horizontal lines.
- Beginning with several pluses (such as ++++++) will add add to this page areas between every comment. This enables comments to comments.
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