wiki

[murmsk]

I notice in the next version we will be able to utilize wiki-like pages.

How do you envision this to be used?

steve

[Rickliftig]

Steve - I am thinking of it as an operations manual/ employee manual for the office. I suppose you caould use it as a repository for OSHA and HIPAA manuals too. Of course the secret is establishing and maintaining it.

[jordansparks]

We built it out of desperation for our own use. We've been using Share Point, the MS wiki, for a few years. It seems to be widely used, but it is really just an awful awful program. The "wysiwyg" is extremely buggy and finicky. So we found it essential to build our own wiki that saves all the pages right into the OD database. It's rough in a few areas, but boy is it fast. We will use it very heavily. We are hiring a full-time technical writer within a few days whose first job will be to move all of our helpdesk content from our old wiki into our new wiki.
Customers might not have much use for a wiki, but you never know. The wiki pages support many useful features, including images, tables, file links, folder links, and external links. I expect there to be many creative uses for it. Wikipedia got far bigger than anyone ever expected it would, and I think the same might happen for customers who push the limits with this feature. Some examples: pages for individual patients with complex TPs, personal todo lists, organize tray setups, track continuing ed, staff contact list, howtos, etc. We provide a lot of structured data containers in other areas of Open Dental. But this is one place where the user builds the structure instead of the programmer. We give you free reign to create any kind of data, organized however you want.
We hope that the technology behind it will soon also be the foundation for the tool that we will use to rebuild our manual. It would automatically generate html pages for our website and pdf for a printed manual. It may even be able to generate different kinds of manuals, such as for specific versions, or quick start guides instead of full unabridged editions. In addition to wiki and manual, it may also finally allow help that's built right into the program. We have lots of plans, and this seemed like a good first step to take.

[Pruce Dental]

sounds good...

will it be practical to scan things like MSDS sheets into it too?

[murmsk]

Would it be practical for use as a Pt. Education tool with linked pages with photos to help explain TMD, Endo and the like?

[jordansparks]

You could scan MSDSs, then import the images so they show on the wiki pages. No way to resize images for better viewing yet.

It could be used for patient education as long as you didn't have other private things on other pages in your wiki.

[jimgaas]

My office is searching the web for msds's in pdf format. We intend to try to find all of our data sheets and keep them in a file on the computer in our office. I would be glad to post these sheets to a wiki page and I would really appreciate being able to take advantage of the work others are putting into a project like this as well. How do we access this wiki area?

[Pruce Dental]

It is in version 13.1..under the tools tab...

The wiki is awesome and has a LOT of potential...

couple questions...

Jordan...

how come you hid the wiki pages under the tools instead of making it more visible in the manage module?

Also i tried scanning a letter into the wiki..the image size is too large and you have to scroll to see it...Can you make the images smaller or do we need to use an image manipulation software outside of OD first each time?

[jordansparks]

Once you open it you will leave it open all day, so there's no need to frequently find it. The images feature is mostly optimized for screenshots. In that case, you already know that the image will fit on the page. If I can remember, I will add that to the bottom of the wiki page in the manual where we talk about enhancements.

[Pruce Dental]

OD screenshots are good for a company doing OD debugging but images of letters are even better for dental offices

I look forward to organizing all the letters from insurance companies about payment policies, network contracts, network participation, and shared networks in one organized location..It would be really neat to have a small image of each letter with a brief description that you can click on and enlarge to read since over time there will be numerous items saved on a single page.