Saturday, October 18, 2008

PBwiki -vs- Wikidot

I've used PBwiki several times for class projects in the Library Science Program. I've always been frustrated however by its lack of CSS support unless you are a "power-user" and pay for an upgrade. I also like having a little more control over what my wiki looks like. I tried to see if I could do better. I really based on my choice of wiki software on the look of the website design itself, as the tours didnt really give you a look into the interface that you would be presented with and I wanted to make a choice quickly. 

  • PBwiki -it's got ease of use on its side, new users should be able to create pages easily. 
  • wikidot - its interface is a bit intimidating, it's hard to know where to start, having the "edit button at the bottom of the page is not intuitive. 
  • PBwiki edit interface - uses very familiar icons, similiar to using MS office or any type of other popular text editing software, even similiar to Bloggers edit interface.wikidot - opts to use buttons



  • Wikidot - opts to use buttons that are less intuitive. 



  • Wikidot suppports all kinds of bizarre and unexpected editor features such as: mathematical equations, inline mathematical expressions, equation reference, bibliography block, citations and footnotes. 
  • PBwiki - has many of the above Wikidot features, but they are buried in the plug-ins menu. 
  • Wikidot - you can embed audio and video quickly
  • PBwiki - you have to find the embed video in the plug-ins section
  • Wikidot - not a wysiwyg editor
  • PBwiki - closer to a wysiwyg than Wikidot
  • Wikidot - has its own html/wiki syntax, not really a plus in my book
  • PBwiki - uses nice and straightforward HTML
  • Wikidot - no access to the HTML code
  • PBwiki - can edit the HTML, but no CSS support
In a nutshell, I will gladly resign some control to have the ease of a nicely designed interface to use to create "quick and dirty" wiki pages. Don't think I will be giving up my PBwiki account any time soon for a Wikidot account. 

No comments: