wikispaces

Bringing Color to Your Wiki

March 11th, 2008 by Sarah

Yesterday, we released a highly-requested feature – advanced formatting of your wiki text. You can now change the color, font, size or alignment of text on your page.


To use this new feature:
1. Edit your page.
2. Highlight the text you wish to format.
3. Click on the text formatting icon in the toolbar textcolor.gif.
4. Format the text as you wish and click “Apply Style.”



Advanced Text Formatting



We are quite excited about this feature and have gotten “Oohs” and “Ahs” since releasing it last night. Try it out for yourself and let us know what you think.

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53 Responses to “Bringing Color to Your Wiki”

  1. on 11 Mar 2008 at 10:43 am1 Mr. Sheehy

    YES!

    I knew you folks would eventually do this, and I’m thrilled to see this feature added to the editor.

    More and more virtual hugs to all of you and how effective you help make me as a teacher.

  2. on 11 Mar 2008 at 12:21 pm2 Robert Brown

    You guys do a fantastic job … keep up this important work!

  3. on 11 Mar 2008 at 12:47 pm3 ClCziprok

    Bravo!

    I’m very impressed, thanks for that magnific tool!
    My students are really happy! I am, too… it’s my birthday and I love textcolor! Thanks!
    Good job!

  4. on 11 Mar 2008 at 1:34 pm4 BDilling

    Thanks so much! I thought I had missed this feature earlier until I just saw this posting. So glad to see that it was added. This makes things a lot more visually pleasing!

  5. on 11 Mar 2008 at 5:02 pm5 martin

    finally!!!!!! :)

    Love your product – this makes the wiki SOOO much better!

  6. on 11 Mar 2008 at 6:11 pm6 Vicki Davis

    Thank you so much for this! This is a great improvement!

  7. on 11 Mar 2008 at 6:34 pm7 Colette Cassinelli

    I love Wikispaces and use it all the time with my students and for sharing ideas with my fellow educators. My students will be thrilled!!!

  8. on 11 Mar 2008 at 6:57 pm8 Madeline Brownstone

    Yes!!!! You have just made 75 7th graders much happier with their wiki pages.

  9. on 11 Mar 2008 at 7:02 pm9 GingerTPLC

    I’ve really been wanting this for quite a while, so I can’t wait to show my students! :-)

  10. on 11 Mar 2008 at 8:18 pm10 Cherice

    I’m on my wikis every day, and so I notice the steady stream of changes. I love all the new widgets and so appreciate your continual efforts to make Wikispaces easy and fun to use. Schools could learn a lot about continuous improvement from you! ;-)

    On another note, I believe the visual aspects of design are key elements in the effective pedagogical use of technology in education, so your recent upgrades allowing color and centering, among other things, made me VERY happy! :-)

    Thanks SO much for all you do for us!

  11. on 12 Mar 2008 at 3:32 am11 folkdawg

    Congrats on this important new feature. As a Mac user, one of the key reasons I chose Wikspaces was because of the stability of your WYSIWYG on Mac. Now you’ve done the competition one better with this full-featured text editing tool. Go Wikispaces!!!

  12. on 12 Mar 2008 at 6:31 am12 PredsGrrl

    YES!!!!!!!!!!

    Thank you soooo much, wikispaces! I’ve always wanted to change the color/font without using codes… I’ve never been good at coding…

    XOXO
    <3
    PredsGrrl

  13. on 12 Mar 2008 at 6:45 am13 Ruthie

    I’m very excited about this feature, but so far, cannot get it to work. I tend to be way behind in figuring out wiki stuff so any help would be greatly appreciated!

  14. on 12 Mar 2008 at 7:52 am14 Sarah

    Hey everyone,

    Glad to hear you all are enjoying the tool. If you and your students or communities use this tool, and would like to share your work with others, let us know by sending an e-mail to help@wikispaces.com. We’d love to profile spaces which help foster the creative side in other users.

    Ruthie, as for your problem, can you send us an help to help@wikispaces.com letting us know what you are doing in detail, as well as what Internet browser and version you are using?

    -Sarah

  15. on 12 Mar 2008 at 10:57 am15 Chan

    Wiki’s were originally designed for collaboration. Not necessarily as a “stand alone” website. However, many are using wiki’s as an online tool for their personal web development. This new web 2.0 capability you have added will enhance the look, and allow people to become more creative in their design.
    Thanks for the great site and hard work!

  16. on 13 Mar 2008 at 5:17 am16 Rhonda Gunnell

    I am so excited that color has been added. It makes wikispaces.com the best of all wikis! Thanks!

  17. on 13 Mar 2008 at 7:08 am17 manuelflr

    GRAAACIAS : )

  18. on 14 Mar 2008 at 6:17 am18 Jazmen

    Hay wats up the colors are beautiful. The wikispaces is sort of new to me and I still need some work done on it, but this is the greatest thing I’v ever been on.

  19. on 15 Mar 2008 at 9:57 am19 animefreak110

    After I tried the new feature, I couldn’t see the words on my homepage!!! Does anyone now what I did wrong? Heres the page:

    http://mangamania.wikispaces.com/

  20. on 15 Mar 2008 at 3:31 pm20 Abbandon

    #13 Ruthie – You have to highlight stuff before you click the color button. Once you hit the color button you will see that window above with the color wheel. You have to choose a color for your text and a color for your background. The ring of colors is for choosing the color, the box in the center is used for picking the shade of color. Hope that helps.

    I have a question for Wiki users. Is there any way to color the backgrounds of tables?? I could have swore I saw where people had done this but I could not figure out how.

  21. on 16 Mar 2008 at 7:22 pm21 Sarah

    animefreak110,

    It seems that you have set the font color in the section you highlighted to white. To change the color again to a new color, edit your page and place your cursor in the section of highlighted text. Click on the formatting tool, choose your color in the wheel and then the shade of that color in the box. The default is white, or #ffffff . Choose a different shade and you will see that color on your page.

    Best,
    Sarah

  22. on 17 Mar 2008 at 2:47 pm22 KittyKat

    I think it’s awsome!!!!Now my wiki can look so much cooler!!!

  23. on 18 Mar 2008 at 8:10 am23 Bryan

    Sarah here is a posting for the News Blog,

    I saw the new text formatting icon on the visual edit tool bar before I knew there was something about it on News (but after I had tried Help with no success) so I ‘experimented’. This leads to two mega comments and three small ones.
    Mega 1. The facility you have added is, once you battle your way through it and insofar as it goes, a very welcome addition – it partly plugs a gaping hole. However to be of real practical use it needs to be extended (or completely revamped) to allow the user to save, and apply later, user defined styles – they should not be discarded after they have been used once only on a single text string and have to be recreated (laboriously) for the next string! [With the message version of this I will point you at the kind of mechanism I would hope for].
    Mega 2. The facilities you have offered on the visual edit tool bar should be immediately offered to your users for the composition of contributions to your fora, space discussion postings, or blog entries and in your internal messaging service for message composition. (à la Outlook or Thunderbird or many web based e-mail services). Later improvements should of course be available in all three environments.
    Minor 1. I, in my experimentation, also hit the white on white problem but unlike your commentors above I figured it out. A ‘default’ of white text ona white background is an ill-considered choice.
    Minor 2. I missed the capability to add my favourite fonts to the drop down list under your new facility. Any chance of you offering such a capability?
    Minor 3. I know I’m having trouble making the search in Wikispaces interpret what I enter in the ‘box’ correctly but I couldn’t find anything at all under Help on this new facility. It would not have occurred to me to look in News blogs for this material. Any chance of you putting it on the Help menu? And any chance of you deleting the voluminous fora entries which have effectively been ‘obsoleted’ by the new facility? Bryan

  24. on 19 Mar 2008 at 4:43 pm24 Sarah

    Bryan,

    Thank you for your feedback. We are always looking to improve our features and your comments about the new formatting tool are very useful.

    In regards to your second point, while we would like to extend this tool to our discussion threads and other such non-wiki content, we do have options to format this content now by using wikitext. For some basic instructions on formatting text in wikitext, see: http://www.wikispaces.com/wikitext .

    In your fifth point, you mentioned having difficulty searching in Wikispaces. Are you looking for ways to do advanced searches? If so, you can find information about how to do that here: http://www.wikispaces.com/help#toc33 .

    Thank you for your comments as we continue to improve this formatting tool and make it simpler and more intuitive for you all.

    Best,
    Sarah

  25. on 20 Mar 2008 at 8:56 am25 sweetfeathers

    I think that it is cool that you can change the text now. It will make pages more unique!

  26. on 23 Mar 2008 at 9:55 am26 Carlos

    This sounds great, but I can’t get it to work – is there some trick?

    I am using Firefox and Mac os 10.5, when I click the color icon, nothing happens.

    Thanks,

    Carlos

  27. on 31 Mar 2008 at 9:45 am27 Marcy

    omg i love it.

  28. on 31 Mar 2008 at 1:10 pm28 Sarah

    Carlos,

    Send us an e-mail at help@wikispaces.com and let us know the version of your Internet browser, and the page you are editing, along with any more details you can give us about what happens when you click the format tool?

    Best,
    Sarah

  29. on 31 Mar 2008 at 1:56 pm29 Dorothy

    I love the colour option. I’ve been trying to do it with code but now it’s easy!

    Like some other users I kept getting the white on white thing until I worked it out. Maybe as Bryan says making that the default isn’t the best choice.

    Keep up the good work – my kids love their wiki and collaborate so well over it.

    Thank you
    Dorothy

  30. on 31 Mar 2008 at 4:14 pm30 Nadine

    Hi: Maybe somebody can help me.
    I have highlighted the word, clicked on the icon and nothing….
    the window does not pop up.
    It works on my husbands PC but I am using a macbook. Would that matter?

  31. on 31 Mar 2008 at 5:03 pm31 Hana

    Thank you so much for bringing colourful features to our wikis. Wikispaces have truly helped me in collaborating my groupwork in doing my Masters project. Keep it up!

  32. on 31 Mar 2008 at 5:25 pm32 vanessa

    I like the new features. Now I can customize!

  33. on 31 Mar 2008 at 6:39 pm33 David Pater

    Huge upgrade. Thanks!

    May I request a feature to also set background color for entire page and buttons to simply click to change fonts to standard colors (red, blue, green, black)

  34. on 31 Mar 2008 at 6:41 pm34 sarah

    This wiki is soooo great!!!!!!

    TTTTThhhhhhaaaannnnkkkkkkksssss!!!!!

  35. on 31 Mar 2008 at 6:45 pm35 Sima

    This new feature seems very good, but if there is more options for the formats of the text like spelling and check grammer icon on the toolbar and etc. SO that would be more better!

    Thaannkksssss!!!!!!!!!!

  36. on 01 Apr 2008 at 8:34 am36 Toni

    Thanks for adding the ability to change fonts and colors. Totally awesome!!!

  37. on 01 Apr 2008 at 10:46 am37 Michael

    I tried repeatedly using the tool on “Welcome” at the top of my home page and all that happened was that the word “Welcome” disappeared. I didn’t bother saving the result.

    I selected “Welcome” and chose a background colour.

  38. on 01 Apr 2008 at 1:19 pm38 Suzanne Denney

    I’ve just created my first web page and tried using that icon on my Mac. All I get is the word HEADING in various sizes with numbers. The color and style box doesn’t appear. Any suggestions?

  39. on 02 Apr 2008 at 5:46 pm39 Nadine

    Hi Suzanne:
    I am having trouble with the color/style box not appearing either. I have a Mac too. Hopefully someone can shed some light on this because I would love to use this feature!

  40. on 03 Apr 2008 at 4:04 am40 nicomorelli

    I tried the new feature and it doesn’t seem to work, when I change colour it changes to white on white background (so I can’t see the text)

  41. on 03 Apr 2008 at 8:50 am41 Sarah

    Nadine and Suzanne,

    Are you both using Safari? The color/style tool isn’t working in Safari, but we are fixing that. For now, try using Firefox and it should work perfectly.

    Best,
    Sarah

  42. on 03 Apr 2008 at 8:52 am42 Sarah

    Michael and nicomorelli,

    You need to both choose the color on the color wheel and then the shade of the color in the inner box. We are going to be updating the tool shortly so that the default color is not white.

    Best,
    Sarah

  43. on 03 Apr 2008 at 8:56 am43 Sarah

    Sima,

    We don’t have a spelling or grammar check in Wikispaces. However, Firefox and Safari have already built spell check into the browser. If you are using Internet Explorer, you can download a spell checker for the browser, such as ieSpell at http://iespell.com/.

    Best,
    Sarah

  44. on 03 Apr 2008 at 11:04 am44 Nadine

    Thanks Sarah! What a difference… I will be using Firefox from now on.
    You are awesome!!

  45. on 04 Apr 2008 at 4:39 pm45 Dhruvi

    wow this is so cooll awesome =)

  46. on 10 Apr 2008 at 8:09 am46 Jim Cairns

    The new text color/font facility sounds great. It doesn’t seem to work on my Mac based system. Any suggestions?

  47. on 11 Apr 2008 at 12:14 pm47 Sarah

    Jim,

    Are you using Safari? Currently, the text formatting tool does not work in Safari. We are working on fixing this. For now, try the formatting tool in Firefox.

    Best,
    Sarah

  48. on 12 Apr 2008 at 4:51 am48 rbrown

    I find that the color editing tool does not work properly with Mozilla Firefox. Is IE a required browser for proper functioning of the new tools?

  49. on 16 Apr 2008 at 8:14 am49 Marion

    Great. colour is a huge improvement – now I just need tables!

    Thanks
    Marion

  50. on 17 Apr 2008 at 1:43 pm50 Sarah

    rbrown,

    The color tool doesn’t yet work in Safari but should work fine in Firefox and IE. If you could e-mail us at help@wikispaces.com letting us know specifically what problems you are encountering in Firefox, we can take a look at it.

    Best,
    Sarah

  51. on 17 Apr 2008 at 1:44 pm51 Sarah

    Marion,

    Thanks for your feedback. We do have a table tool available. If you edit your page, you will see an icon that looks like a table. Click on it and you can add tables to your page.

    Best,
    Sarah

  52. on 25 Apr 2008 at 8:31 am52 Patty

    The additional of color is so cool. IT CHANGES EVERYTHING!!

  53. on 21 May 2008 at 6:10 am53 Lucy

    fantastic job