Instructions of how to make a basic wiki

1. Basic Wiki
Jacqui Sharp
updated January 2014

2. Join Wikispaces
Go to http://www.wikispaces.
com/
Click on ‘I’m a Teacher’
Choose a username
Type in a Password
Type in your email, click Join

3. Confirm your email
Go to your email
and confirm your
wikispace
account
me
me@gmail.com

4. Create a New wiki
Go back to your wiki
Click on New Wiki
Choose your industry
(K12)
Click Continue

5. New Wiki
Type in a wiki
name with no
spaces
Fill in school, city,
state and postal
code
Click Create
Be creative with
your name, don’t call
it after your room
number. This wiki is
your resource that
will move with you
when you change
schools.

6. Change to a Basic Wiki
Click on Settings
Click on General
Click on Basic Website
Click on Save

7. Themes and Colors
Click on Themes and
Colors
I recommend FlexFluid
because you can
customize up to 3
colours on the Page
You can go back and change your
theme at any time

8. Customize the colors
Choose a theme color and click Preview and
Customize.
Click in the Background box, then drag the
circle around to a different color.
Drag the circle in the square to the tone
you want.
Repeat with Header/Footer and Sidebar
and Links if needed.
Click Preview to see it, Apply when it is
ready.

9. Change your Logo
Click on Logo
You can use any GIF,
JPEG or PNG graphic.
Click on Choose File,
find file on your
hardrive and click.

10. Flaming Text http://flamingtext.com/
Flaming Text has
approximately 315
different graphic styles to
choose from.
Choose a style by Clicking
on it

11. Flaming Text
Using proper punctuation type in the
name of your site. You may need to
slide the slider to change font size
down.
If you click on Logo tab, you can
change colors.
You must go to Background and make
the Logo transparent or you could
end up with a white box behind your
logo.
Click Create Logo

12. Flaming Text
Click Personal Use
Click Download
Click Save Image (don’t
open)

13. Change your Logo on wiki
Go back to your wiki
Click on Logo
Click on Choose File,
find file on your
hardrive and click
Choose (it will be in
your Downloads folder)
Click Save.
If the logo is too big for your wiki then go
back to where you left Flaming Text, click
Edit Logo and make the font size smaller.
Create logo again and download again.

14. Set up your pages
Click on ‘Edit Navigation’
Click on ‘Edit Navigation
Page’.
Delete the ‘Include
Navigation’ box

15. Set up Pages
Some of the pages you might like to have are Reading, Writing, Maths,
Topic, Photos, Calendar, Homework, Alphabet, Phonics etc
Go to Link Button
Click in Page Name
Type in ‘home’ with lowercase
letters, click on the blue link.
Click Add Link
Repeat steps to add more pages
but they can start with a capital
letter.

16. Set up Pages
Make changes to the
size, font and color of
your Page names. You will
need to change each
page name one at a time.
Click Save when finished.

17. Home Page
Click on the ‘home’ page link. You
will not see any editing links yet.
Click on the Show Wiki
Controls button.

18. Wiki Controls button
Now you can see your
Settings button (if you
want to go and change
wiki colors or logo.
And you can see your
‘Editing’ buttons
Click on Edit to edit the
page

19. Edit Page
This is where you can write
your welcome message.
Delete the wiki welcome
message.
You might add some photos
of interesting corners or
centres that you have in
your classroom.

20. Add some maths sites
To start off you can copy some of
my maths sites from my maths wiki
to your maths page on your wiki.
Go to http://mathsandelearning.
wikispaces.com find a page with
resources. Click and drag over the
page and then press Ctrl (Command)
C for copy

21. Add some maths sites
Go to your maths page
Click Edit
Press Ctrl (Command) V to
paste.
Before you go and click
Save, you need to make a
couple of changes to
every picture.
Click on the - or the +
button to
increase/decrease size
once. If you don’t do this,
every picture will be
gigantic and will take you
forever to resize
Click on the Remove to
remove the caption (which
is the picture file name)

22. Add a Picture Link
Take a screen capture of the game
● Mac (Shift -Command-4) click and drag
around picture, it will go to your desktop
● Win (Search for Snipping Tool), click and
drag around picture and click Save. You
can choose where to save
Go back to game website and take a copy of
the Internet address

23. Add a Picture Link
Go back to your wiki. Click Edit on the page.
Click on the Table icon
Make a 3x2 table
Go to File button
Click on Upload Files
Find the screen capture and select it
Wait until the picture appears in the files list
Click ONCE on the File

24. Add a Picture Link
Click Add Link
Click on Web Address
Paste in Link
Click on New Window
Click Add Link

25. Add a Text Link
Add text
Highlight the words to be linked.
Click on the Link button
Click on Web Address
Paste in Link
Click on New Window
Click Add Link
Click Save when finished.

26. Make Wiki public
You may have noticed that wikis are asking you to
verify your account. If you don't your wiki will be
Private and people will be only able to view it if
they are invited by email. It is a one off cost of
$1.00 that you pay through Google Wallet. You
need to have a Google account to finish the
verification process. Click on Verify Your Account
and follow instructions.
If you do not have a Google account
and/or you object to paying the $1
online, then you can email wikispaces at
their support page and ask them to
consider making your wiki public so that
you can use it with your students and
that you are not comfortable paying $1
online. I have found them to be very
accommodating to teachers. It might
take up to 24 hours.
Once you receive your email from wikispaces to say you are verified you will need to make your wikis public. Go to your
wiki. Click on Manage Wiki - Permissions.
Click on Protected which will make your wiki 'Public' but only you can edit. Click Update.

27. How can you share your wiki with your students?
Click on your Home Page
Go to the internet URL
at the top of the page.
Copy that URL and
share with students