Please ask us for help if you are getting stuck!

Getting started with PBwiki:

Here's a step-by-step guide:

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(a) Making your acount:

1) Go back to the class website.

http://prairieecosystems.pbwiki.com

2) Click the log on button (top right)

https://prairieecosystems.pbwiki.com/FrontPage?login=1

3) Logon with your PBwiki identity:

Click the link on the bottom of the page - "You can also log in with your PBwiki Identity"

4) Put in the password, ASK ME.

With this account you can an edit pages and revert pages to previous versions. You can also upload new files and create new pages.

(b) Now create your student page:

 1) Go to "student pages"

http://prairieecosystems.pbwiki.com/StudentPages

 2) Click edit page (top left)

 3) Write your name (alphabetical order please)

 4) Select your name

 5) Click the "Link" icon

 6) When the box pops up, click OK.

This will generate a blank student page

 7) Click "Save" on the "StudentPages"

 8) Edit your own student page:

Click on the link you generated, then click the "Create new page" button when the new window pops up.

 9) Start editing your page. Its just like Word. Use the "link" button to add wiki pages (add as many as you like) or link to other URLs.  Within wikis, making a new link makes a new page.

 10) Remember to SAVE your work frequently.

About pictures:

Make your pictures are reasonable size (<600 pixels wide, 100-200kb). You can use Photoshop if you have it or Google's Picassa (which is free), or there are tons of websites that will resize pictures for you. The first hit I found on google was http://www.shrinkpictures.com/.

The Simple Solution to Image Editing/Resizing: IrfanView

1) Download the program: http://www.download.com/IrfanView/3000-2192-10021962.html?part=dl-IrfanView&subj=dl&tag=button

2) It's already an .exe so you don't have to do anything-- run the program, click through all that initial stuff (the default settings should be perfectly sufficient)

3) To open your image either copy and paste it into the program or "File" "Open" it (... also the little open folder tab in the top left).

4) To Resize the image go to the "Image" drop-down menu and then "Resize/Resample". Here you will find various options, the ones you want to pay attention to are the ones on the left. It should be straight forward (reducing an images size by X% or making its dimensions a fixed number of pixels).

5) Satisfactory resizing does not usually on the first try, to go back to the original image execute an "Edit", "Undo".

6) Cropping will probably occur after you have resized the image, as the original image will probably not even fit on your monitor. To Crop use the mouse to select the area you want (similar to the little drag-boxes you can make on your desktop and go to "Edit", "Crop Selection."

**My apologies if these instructions were too detailed for you.