A wiki is a site that is designed for groups of people to quickly capture and share ideas by creating simple pages and linking them together. Your organization can use a wiki for a variety of uses. On a large scale, you can share large volumes of information in an Enterprise wiki. On a smaller scale, you can use a team site as a wiki to gather and share ideas quickly about a project.
To learn a little more about wikis, see Wiki overview at the bottom of the page.
Create a wiki page library
A team site is a wiki. That’s also true of other types of sites. Therefore, you can start from your team site or another type of site and begin creating wiki pages right there. In a team site, each new page is created in the Site Pages library. If that’s all you need, you don’t need to create a wiki page library and you can skip to other procedures in this article. If you prefer to manage your wiki separately, you can create a wiki page library.
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Click Settings
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On the Your Apps page, type Wiki into the search field and click Search
Note: You can also scroll though the apps to find Wiki Page Library.
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Click Wiki Page Library.
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In the Name box, type a name for the new wiki page library, such as Wiki Pages.
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Click Create.
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In the Contents list, click the new wiki to open it.
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To add users, Click Share
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In the Share dialog box, enter the names, email addresses, or the alias 'Everyone'. If you have team email aliases such as "Engineering", or any other group alias, you can also enter those here. As you enter the names, the server queries to verify the existence of the user account or alias. If, later, you want to add users, see Adding users to a wiki page below.
SharePoint
SharePoint Server 2019
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Click Share to save.
Notes:
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You can configure the settings for the wiki page library, such as permissions, page history, and incoming links, by going to the library and clicking Page in the header.
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If you create a new wiki page and later want to change its title, see Customize your team site.
Create an Enterprise wiki site
Before you create an Enterprise wiki, think about whether it’s the best solution for your organization. To learn more information about how to plan and create an Enterprise wiki site, see Plan sites and manage users to get some ideas. A full-scale Enterprise wiki should be created as its own site collection. See Create a site collection for more info.
Important: The Enterprise wiki is on the publishing tab in the template collection. The Publishing tab will not appear if the publishing features are not enabled at the site collection level. Your site collection administrator needs to enable the SharePoint Server Publishing Infrastructure feature on the site collection to make publishing-related templates available in the site. To enable publishing (with correct permissions), see Enable publishing features or Features enabled in a SharePoint publishing site.
The following instructions show how to create an Enterprise wiki as a subsite.
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On the site where you want to create an Enterprise wiki, click Settings
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On the Site Contents page, click New+, and then Subsite, or click new subsite.
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On the New SharePoint Site page, type a Title and a URL name for the site.
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In the Template Selection section, click Publishing, and then click Enterprise Wiki.
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To set unique permission, click Use unique permissions.
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Click Create.
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You may be taken to the Set Up Groups for this Site dialog, where you can leave default, add, or change groups.
Note: You can configure the site permissions and other site settings for the Enterprise wiki site later, by clicking Share. For information, see Adding users to a wiki page below.
When you first create a wiki, the home page contains sample content about wikis. You can edit it or replace it with your own content. The easiest way to start adding content to your wiki is to edit the home page and add placeholder links to pages that you will create later.
Note: To edit wiki pages, people need permission to contribute to a wiki.
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On the wiki page that you want to edit, click Page, and then click Edit.
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Type any text you want into the text section.
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Use the buttons on the ribbon to format text, and insert other content, such as pictures, tables, hyperlinks, and Web Parts.
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To add wiki links to other pages, type the name of the page surrounded by double square brackets: [[Page Name]]
For example, to add a wiki link to a page named "Project Dates," type: [[Project Dates]]
When you start to type [[, if the page exists, you'll be able to select it from the list.
If the page that you are linking to does not exist yet, you can create a link to the page anyway. After you save the edited page, the placeholder link you just created will have a dotted line beneath it. The actual page will be created later when someone else clicks the link to the page.
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When you are finished editing the page, click Page and then click Save. If you don’t want to save your changes, click Page, click the arrow under Save, click Stop Editing and then click Discard changes.
Tip: You can add more content later or change content that you have entered by clicking Edit. If you created a placeholder link, you can later click the link to create and edit the page.
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From the wiki page that you want to add users, click Share
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In the Share 'Wiki Name' dialog box, click Invite People to add users to the page.
SharePoint
SharePoint Server 2019
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Enter the names, email addresses, or the alias 'Everyone'. If you have team email aliases such as 'Engineering', or any other group alias, you can also enter those here. As you enter the names, the server verifies the existence of the user account or alias.
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To set permissions for the new users, click Show Options. Under Select a group or permission level or Select a permission level, select one of the groups or permission level (such as Read, Edit, or Full control.
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To see the list of all users who are already sharing the site, click Shared with.
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When you're done, click Share.
You don’t usually have to check out a page for editing, but it’s a good idea if you think someone else might try to edit it at the same time as you. When you check out a wiki page, you ensure that others cannot make changes to the page while you edit it. While the page is checked out, you can edit and save it, close it, and reopen it. Other users cannot change the page or see your changes until you check it in.
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From the wiki page that you want to edit, click Page and then click Check Out.
Note: When you check a page out, you are only reserving it for yourself, it doesn't save, download, or edit. You need to choose what you want to do.
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Click Edit to edit the page.
Note: To check in the wiki page after editing, click the Check In button. To discard checkout, click the arrow under the Check In button, and then select Discard Check Out.
You can add a picture from your computer, web address or from your SharePoint site directly to your wiki page.
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If you are not already editing the wiki page, click Edit.
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Click where you want to insert the picture, and then click the Insert tab on the ribbon.
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To insert a picture from your computer, do the following:
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Click the Picture and then click From Computer.
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Browse to the picture on your computer, select the library that you want to upload the picture to, and then click OK. You may need to fill in additional information about the picture you are uploading.
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To insert a picture from a web address, do the following:
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Click Picture and then click From Address.
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In the Address box, enter the web address where the picture is located.
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In the Alternative Text box, type some text to describe the picture. Alternative text (or Alt text) appears as tooltip text when readers point to the picture. Alt text also helps people using screen readers understand the content of pictures.
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To insert a picture from a library on your SharePoint site, do the following:
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Click Picture and then click From SharePoint.
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In the Select an Asset box, select a library or folder containing the picture you want to insert, Then click the picture, and then click Insert. You may need to fill in additional information about the picture you are inserting.
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You can use the commands on the Image tab to add Alt Text for your image, change its appearance, and position it on the page. When you’re done editing the page, click Save to save your changes.
Wiki pages support the placement of links to other web or SharePoint sites outside the wiki across the top of the page and on the Quick Launch bar. These links differ from wiki links placed directly on the wiki page by users as they are specifically managed by the wiki administrator. You can also drag and drop links to rearrange them.
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On the wiki page that you want to edit, click Edit Links
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Click the Link gadget
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Enter the text for the Text to Display field for the link. This determines how the link appears on the page.
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Enter the URL address in the Address field. Example: http://www.microsoft.com.
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Click Try link to test your link URL. When you're done, save your link.
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To rearrange links in the Quick Launch bar or at the top of the wiki page, click Edit Links
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To edit links in the Quick Launch bar or at the top of the wiki page, click Edit Links, select any link, and then click to place the cursor in any location of the link text
You can use wiki links to link pages together by simply using the page name surrounded by double square brackets. You create wiki links the same way whether you are linking to existing wiki pages or pages that do not exist yet.
For example, if your team will be creating a link later for Training Issues, you can go ahead and insert the link to the page now by typing [[Training Issues]]. After you save the page, the link to your future page appears with a dotted line under it.
To create the page later, someone can click the underlined placeholder link and then click Create.
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If you are not already editing the wiki page, click Edit.
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Click where you want to insert a wiki link.
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Type [[ and then begin typing the name of the page. The wiki will suggest page names that start with what you are typing.
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Do one of the following:
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To select one of the suggested pages, use the arrow keys and then press ENTER, or use the mouse.
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Type a new page name followed by ]]. If you type a new page name, you will create a link to a page which has not yet been created.
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Your finished page name should be surrounded by double square brackets, like this: [[Page Name]]
Tips: To quickly add a link from a wiki page back to the home page for your wiki, type [[Home]]. You can link to many objects in SharePoint, not just pages. Here are some examples of links:
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[[Dogs]] : A link to a page named Dogs in the same folder.
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[[Animals/Dogs]] : A link to a page named Dogs in a subfolder called Animals.
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[[List:Announcements/Welcome]] : A link to the item called Welcome in the Announcements list on this site.
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To display double opening or closing brackets without making a link, type a backslash before the two brackets. For example, \[[ or \]].
You can create wiki placeholder links to pages that do not exist yet. Creating placeholder links helps people create the wiki in smaller pieces without worrying about creating every page in the wiki all at once. A placeholder wiki link has a dotted line beneath it.
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Go to the page that has the placeholder link.
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Click the placeholder wiki link.
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In the Add a page window, click Create.
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Add the content that you want to the new page and save it.
You can edit wiki links, as well as the display text that someone sees when they click the link. Wiki links are different from hyperlinks to pages or websites outside of the wiki. To edit or change hyperlinks, use the Format tab on the Link Tools contextual tab of the ribbon instead.
You might need to edit the display text for a wiki link if the name of the page you want to link to is not clear in the context of the page where you are inserting the link. For example, if the page for brainstorming ideas about the first chapter of a book is named CH1, you might want "Chapter One" as the display text for the link, so that the purpose of the page is clearer.
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If you are not already editing the wiki page, click Edit.
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Do one of the following:
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To edit the path of the link so that it points to a different page, click between the two sets of double-square brackets ([[ and ]]), and then replace the current link with the name of the page that you want to link to.
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To change the display text to something other than the exact name of the page, type a vertical bar character (|) after the name of the page (SHIFT + \) and then type the text that you want to appear: [[Name of Page|Text that Displays]]. For example, to use different display text for a page named CH1, you could type: [[CH1|Chapter One]]
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You can add a hyperlink to a page that is external to your wiki or even external to your site.
Add a link to an external page
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If you are not already editing the wiki page, click Edit.
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Click where you want to insert the hyperlink.
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Do one of the following:
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To add a link that’s external to your site:
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Click Insert, then click Link, and then click From Address.
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In the Insert Hyperlink dialog box, type the text to display and the web address for the link.
Add a link from another SharePoint site
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Click Insert, then click Link, and then click From SharePoint.
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In the Select an Asset dialog box, browse to the file that you want to create a link to, and then click Insert.
You can add other items to a wiki page, such as a tasks list to track action items or tasks related to the wiki. Later, you can choose whether or not the list or library appears on the Quick Launch navigation for the wiki.
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If you are not already editing the wiki page, click Page, and then click Edit.
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Click where you want to insert the list or library.
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Click Insert and then click Web Part.
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On the pane that appears on top of the page, under Categories click Apps, and then under Parts, select the name of the list or library, and then click Add.
If you need to add a list or library to the Web Parts list, see Create a list in SharePoint. To create a library, see Create a document library in SharePoint.
Wiki overview
A wiki can help your organization collect and capture institutional knowledge, assemble content from numerous sources, and share plans and ideas. For example, a corporation can create a company-wide Enterprise wiki where employees can find and contribute the latest, most comprehensive information about corporate activities, benefits, and services. Or your team can use a wiki to collect information for new team members, to plan a conference, or to collect ideas for a large document or manual.
After someone creates a wiki page, another team member can add more content, edit the content, or add supporting links. The community of authors helps to ensure the accuracy and relevance of the content. Wikis continue to evolve as people add and revise information.
Because team members can edit wiki pages without any special editing tools, wikis are a good tool for sharing ideas and collecting information from several people. Team members can easily create links to pages for someone to finish creating later, or links to existing pages, without having to struggle with long web addresses.
Your team site is a wiki
The default page type on team sites, and other types of sites, is a wiki page. So in that sense, wiki is everywhere. What that means is you don’t need a special site to create a wiki.
Because the home page of a team site and the new pages that you create there are automatically wiki pages, you can create a wiki right on your team site without creating other libraries or sites. New pages are created in the Site Pages library on a team site and you can manage your pages from there. However, the disadvantage to this approach is that you will not have as many specialized options that come with a wiki page library or an Enterprise wiki site.
Wiki considerations
If you know you will be creating many wiki pages or if you want to manage permissions separately for your wiki than for the rest of your site, you have a couple of options, depending on the scale of the wiki you plan to create and the range of options you want:
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Wiki page library A wiki page library is tailored to managing wiki pages and includes special commands on the ribbon for managing page history, permissions, and incoming links to pages. A site owner can create a wiki page library on most sites and get many of the benefits of a traditional wiki.
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Enterprise wiki An Enterprise wiki is a publishing site for sharing and updating large volumes of information across an enterprise. If an organization needs a large, centralized knowledge repository that is designed to both store and share information on an enterprise-wide scale, consider using an Enterprise wiki. Before you create an Enterprise wiki, think about whether it’s the best solution for your organization. To learn more information about how to plan and create an Enterprise wiki site, we recommend reading the articles about planning sites and site collections.
Who can create a wiki?
You need to have permission to create a site, library, or pages. But the good news is, if a site has been shared with you and you have permission to edit it, you most likely have permission to create a wiki.
Permission levels can be customized, but for most sites, you can create a wiki page library if you have the Edit permission level. By default, members of the Site Name Members group have the Edit permission level. You need to have the Full Control permission level to create an Enterprise wiki site, or your administrator must enable self-service site creation. By default, members of the Site Name Owners group have the Full Control permission level, but your site may be set up differently.
To manage permissions for a page in a wiki page library or an Enterprise wiki, a site owner can click the Page Permissions command on the Page tab on the ribbon.
Although initially creating the site or library is similar to other sites, adding content to a wiki is different from how you add content to other types of sites. On a wiki, you usually start by editing the home page and adding placeholder wiki links to other pages that do not exist yet. You can create those other pages as you go or create them later. When you want to create the page that corresponds to a placeholder link, click the link. The page opens in Edit mode where you can add text and other content such as images.
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