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[wiki] How to use the TextBook?!
I’ve got one big problem with Textpattern’s TextBook: I don’t know how to use it!
More concrete: I don’t know how to navigate through all the pages.
It’s a wiki, so I don’t have a problem if I know what I’m looking for: I just search for it1. But what do I have to do to just get informed what is possible with Textpattern? Is there some kind of generell index (a-z) or content list (like this or that one) to see everything that is in the TextBook?
Don’t get me wrong: The documentation is great! Many people have been working hard to gather all this information and the TextBook is the only up-to-date reference. But the only thing I’m using is the tag index because I don’t know how to handle the rest2.
Well, I know how to use Textpattern so I’m not reliant on the basic “How tos” but there are many things I don’t know about Textpattern that are certainly in the wiki3. I like to know these things: I like to find them. Please give me a clue how to easily use the wiki!
Nils
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1 A few days ago I have been looking for this site. I found it via the search. How do I find it if I don’t know that it’s called “Img Wizard”?
2 I often find things in the wiki only because someone in the forums links to it.
3 As I started using Textpattern TextBook just started to grow. The German TXP Blog was my main source (there is a good step by step tutorial and it was in my native language). I liked the site because it was a mixture between articles, references and tutorials and the presentation is more like a magazine – but it has not that deep information as the TextBook. But I still feel that it’s “more readable”. It’s more like a good book than a dictionary.
Last edited by Skubidu (2006-03-26 11:54:42)
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Re: [wiki] How to use the TextBook?!
This is a good point, Skubidu, and one that we should think more about.
There is certainly a need for a better navigational scheme in TextBook, like a real site would have. At the moment it’s very surface-oriented; the indirect model is to start at the top, find a topic from the main page, dive-in, and return to the surface to pick another topic to dive into. Kind of like how a seagull fishes. This sucks for site navigation, to be sure.
I’m a bit overwhelmed by the German TXP Blog’s interface; too much to try and take in, but that might be a language problem more than anything else, but it is a bit cramped for my liking (maybe it’s the advertising). Regardless, they are two different kinds of site’s (a Weblog versus a Wiki) and need to be treaded accordingly.
So, we need a more holistic navigation process in Textbook…let’s think about it and work on it. All suggestions welcome!
Let’s keep in mind that the interface was once an index (chapter style) that most people poo-pooed, so we changed it to be more like what everyone suggested was needed (topic-grouped). The point? Let’s not walk the path we’ve already tread. Let’s come up with something different and better.
One thing at the very least that is needed is perhaps internal navigation at the page level, kind of like the breadcrumb navigation we have put in the tag pages. Something like that might make a big difference. Other ideas?
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Re: [wiki] How to use the TextBook?!
OK, looked at those links you gave, Skubi.
I can see how the ModX style could be useful, but it’s similar to what we’re trying to do now. In fact, the two models are the same, except that the ModX page adds their second tier link lists under the main topic headers on the main page. I think it works better there because they have more docs for each category (something we just can’t seem to generate here), and even if we did have more docs, I think it would make the main TextBook page too busy with links if we did the same thing (something that was griped about with the former Table of Contents style anyway). In any case, the idea for the TextBook main page is to click a category link, where you are taken to an index page for that category. Again, our problem is there is not enough content to index yet.
That last problem I just noted is why the Typo3 index model wouldn’t work either.
However, I think it would be a good idea to start a TextBook index page, but not make it the main page; we’ll call it TextBook Index, put it under the first main category on the main page, and start it as an A-Z listing of everything getting added to the wiki. Basically just serving as another navigational option to getting to content.
What I’m beginning to see, though, is the wiki just turning into a bunch of link lists. I think if we actually had more documentation to reference in the wiki, it would begin to be more clear how to link things together more logically. For example, keywords in context of one topic linking to another doc page where said topic is in focus, that sort of thing. I’m trying to do that as I find places it can be done (or have the time to look), but it takes more content to link to, more subjects of relevance and worth….same old song and dance.
We’ll keep looking at things.
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Re: [wiki] How to use the TextBook?!
Hi Destry!
Thanks for your replies! I think such an index page you mentioned would be very helpful.
I’m not sure about the whole concept of the TextBook but I see two different kinds of content:
- a glossary (tag index and those things)
- tutorials (how do I…)
I like the wiki look and feel for the first point. But I (and that perhaps just my own opinion or preference) would love to have a more magazine / book like presentation for the second point. By now, I would be happy to have a more clear navigation and the index would be a great step towards it. I’m not familiar with organizing a wiki (normally I just use wikis) so I don’t know what could be done with a wiki. (For example: I don’t know how complex it is to change the structure or the presentation).
Thank you for your sympathetic ear :)
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Re: [wiki] How to use the TextBook?!
Destry wrote:
… we’ll call it TextBook Index,
Or maybe ‘Site Map’? I haven’t followed the thread all the way down, but there could be something useful in this Mediawiki mailing list discussion.
David @ 1 Cog
“Follow the shoe!” … “No, follow the gourd!”
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Re: [wiki] How to use the TextBook?!
Also found Panorama Tools Wiki – note the Site Map, All Pages and Categories.
No idea how they were created, but maybe the functionality we’re looking for here is available already? Maybe a nice email to the Panorama boys and girls to find out? :)
David @ 1 Cog
“Follow the shoe!” … “No, follow the gourd!”
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Re: [wiki] How to use the TextBook?!
The “All Pages” and “Categories” are two of the many Special Pages that are built-in to MediaWiki. I hadn’t really paid attention to the Categories one before, maybe we can put that to use better, just need to figure it out.
“Site Map” is a good call though, too many things getting the “TextBook” tag already.
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