Question

Now that the Wiki has gotten the upgrade it so badly needed, we are looking to try and use it for project specifications and design documents. Are there any resources out there that might help us accomplish this task?

Currently, our specs and design docs are done in Word with a great deal of "eye-candy" formatting. We tried to just copy-paste from Word into the FB wiki editor, and while all of the content and table structure comes through (slightly mangled for lists, but that was expected), none of the other formatting such as color manages to make it.

So, are there any resources for us to use to possibly shift our process that will allow us to use the Wiki for holding these sorts of documents?

Answer 1

I don't have a great solution for maintaining eye-candy when pasting in from word, but here are some tools and resources that your question brings to mind:

For general copy/paste behavior

• This varies by browser; If it's quite important to you, it may be worth experimenting with a few browsers to see which one behaves closest to your desires.
• The 'Repair Formatting' tool found in the Edit Table context menu can also be quite useful for handling pasted tables.

For UI mockups and wireframing

• Balsamiq Mockups

For discussing and commenting on specs, etc.

• Wiki Comments

For pretty code

• Code Snippets

For flowcharts

• Creately (still in beta)

For philosophy

• Painless Functional Specs

Speaking for myself: The wiki plus Wiki Comments and Balsamiq have given me all I've ever needed when it comes to iterating on specs.

I hope this was somewhat useful :-)