Bits and Bytes

http://blog.wikispaces.com/2010/08/tips-and-tricks-page-includes.html

A Page Include is basically a widget that drops the entire contents of one wiki page into another. Which is pretty cool, because it means that you can build content once, and then use it over and over and over again. And it means that you can take large, unwieldy pages, and carve them up in to usable pieces. This gives you the power to do a lot of things. The following are only a few, to get you started:

Bring separate pages together
Maybe you are looking for ways to get a team to work together on a wiki. Each member of the team is responsible for a different part of the project. Which is great — you set up a page for each member of the team, and they get to work right away. But you also want to be able to look at all the work the team has done on one page.

This is all you have to do:

1. Make separate pages for each member of the team.
2. Create a new page. Let’s call this one, “Team Project.”
3. Put headings on the page for each member of the team.
4. Set the cursor under the first heading. Click the Widget icon in the toolbar.
5. From the widget menu, select Contents of a Wiki Page.
6. Type the name of the page for that team member into the Page Name field.
7. Click Embed Wiki Page.
8. Repeat for each remaining section, then hit Save.

And now you have a simple snapshot of the entire project.

Create editable page sections
Now let’s say that, for the sake of clarity and convenience, you want the team members to be able to edit their sections from the Team Project page just as easily as they can from their individual pages. Just add one more step to the instructions above:

1. Make separate pages for each member of the team.
2. Create your new “Team Project” page.
3. Put headings on the page for each member of the team.
4. Set the cursor under the first heading. Click the Widget icon in the toolbar.
5. From the widget menu, select Contents of a Wiki Page.
6. Type the name of the page for that team member into the Page Name field.
7. Check the box that says Editable.
8. Click Embed Wiki Page.
9. Repeat for each remaining section, then hit Save.

Add headers and footers that change when you need them to
Page Includes also let you build content that can be edited in one place and automatically updated all over your wiki.

For example, maybe each of your students has his or her own page, and you want to make sure that today’s assignment appears at the top of every one of those pages every time a student signs in. Here’s how:

1. Create a new page in your wiki called, “Current Assignments.”
2. Add a Contents of a Wiki Page widget for the “Current Assignments” page to the top of each student page.
3. Once a day (or once a week) update your “Current Assignments” page. All the student pages will update automatically.

Explore the possibilities
Because Page Includes are just widgets, like any other widget, you can use them in almost any way you can imagine. Try combining Page Includes and page templates, to get pre-formatted, totally editable pages in your wiki. Or switch to the wikitext editor to customize your page includes with section titles, backlinks, and more.