Create and edit a wiki – Microsoft Support

To learn a little more about wikis, see Wiki overview at the bottom of the page.

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 add a link to this list or library on the Quick Launch, verify that Yes is selected in the Navigation section.

In the Description box, type a description of the purpose of the list or library. The description is optional.

In the Name box, type a name for the list or library. The name is required

Click the name of the list or library that you want to create, such as Tasks .

Tip: In most cases, you can use the Site Actions menu instead to complete this step.

You can add other items to a wiki site, such as a tasks list to track action items or tasks related to the wiki. You can choose whether or not the list or library appears on the Quick Launch for the wiki.

Often, people create wiki placeholder links to pages that do not exist yet. These placeholder links appear as links with a dotted underline. Creating placeholder links helps people create the wiki in smaller pieces without worrying about creating every page in the wiki all at once.

For example, to insert a link to a page called “Training Issues,” type [[Training Issues]] . The link will be created when you save the page.

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. The link to a future page appears with a dotted line under it.

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.

Click where you want to insert the picture, and then on the formatting toolbar for the wiki page, click the Insert Image button.

Find links to more information about creating libraries and adding files to them in the See Also section.

To add an image to a wiki, you need to first upload it to your site. You can upload an image to your site by using a picture library.

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.

Note: If the page that you are linking to does not exist yet, a placeholder link with a dotted underline will appear on the page (after you save the edited page).

To add wiki links to other pages in your wiki, type the name of the page surrounded by double square brackets: [[Page Name]]

Note: If you are not using a browser that supports ActiveX Controls, you will not see the Formatting toolbar. Instead, you can enter text using HTML tags. Find more information about using enhanced text boxes in the See Also section.

Use the buttons on the Formatting toolbar to format text, and add other content, such as images, tables, and hyperlinks.

When you first create a wiki site, 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.

If you have several SharePoint groups, the list may be abbreviated. Click More to see the full list or Less to abbreviate the list.

If you click Use an existing group , select the SharePoint group that you want from the list.

In the Visitors to this Site section, you can also add all authenticated users to the Visitors group, which provides the group members with permission to read the content on your site, by default.

If you click Create a new group , either accept the automatically created name for the new SharePoint group, or type a new name, and then add the people whom you want. Click the check mark icon to verify any names that you type, or click the Address Book icon to browse through your directory for more names.

If the Set Up Groups for this Site page appears, you need to specify whether you want to create new groups or use existing groups for visitors, members, and owners of this site. In each section, do one of the following:

If you specified that you want the subsite to have the same permission as its parent site, the new site is created when you click Create . If you specified unique permissions, the Set Up Groups for this Site page appears, where you can set up groups for the subsite.

When you navigate down the site hierarchy, breadcrumb navigation appears on the page to which you have navigated. If you click No , your subsite will not appear in the breadcrumb navigation for the parent site and the breadcrumb navigation for your new site will not include the parent site.

In the Navigation Inheritance section, specify whether you want the site to inherit its top link bar from the parent site or to have its own set of links on the top link bar. This setting also affects whether the new site appears as part of the breadcrumb navigation of the parent site. The breadcrumb navigation provides a set of hyperlinks that enable site users to quickly navigate up the hierarchy of sites within a site collection, such as: AdventureWorks>Marketing>Convention Planning.

If you click Use Unique Permissions , you can set up permissions later after you finish entering information on the current page.

In the Permissions section, select whether you want to provide access to the same users who have access to this parent site or to a unique set of users.

In the Template Selection section, click the Collaboration tab if it is not already selected, and then click the Wiki Site template.

To avoid potential problems with updating or modifying the site, do not enter any of the following special characters as part of the Web address.

In the Web Site Address section, type a URL for your wiki site. The first part is provided for you.

The title appears at the top of the Web page and appears in navigational elements that help users to find and open the site.

Tip: In most cases, you can use the Site Actions menu instead to complete this step.

Before creating a site, make sure that you are at the location on your site where you want to create a new subsite.

If you are inserting a new list, in the Create List dialog box, select the type of list or library you want to create, and then type a name for your list or library in the List Title box. The name is required.

If you are inserting an existing list or library, under Web Parts , select the name of the list or library, and then click the Add button.

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 for the wiki.

You can add hyperlink to a page that is external to your wiki or even external to your web site.

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 test for a page named CH1, you could type: [[CH1|Chapter One]]

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.

You might need to edit the display text 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 more clear.

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 Web sites outside of the wiki. To edit or change hyperlinks, use the Format tab on the Link Tools contextual tab of the ribbon instead.

Often, people create wiki placeholder links to pages that do not exist yet. These placeholder links appear as links with a dotted underline. Creating placeholder links helps people create the wiki in smaller pieces without worrying about creating every page in the wiki all at once.

To display double opening or closing brackets without making a link, type a backslash before the two brackets. For example, \[[ or \]] .

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:

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.

To select one of the suggested pages, use the arrow keys and then press ENTER, or use the mouse.

Type [[ and then begin typing the name of the page. The wiki will suggest page names that start with what you are typing.

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.

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.

In the Alternative Text box, type alternative text to describe the picture. Alternative text appears as tooltip text when readers point to the picture. Alternative text also helps people with screen readers understand the content of pictures.

Browse to the picture on your computer, select the library that you want to upload the picture to, and then click OK .

With the page in edit mode, click where you want to insert the picture, and then click the Insert tab on the ribbon.

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 .

From the wiki page that you want to edit, click the Page tab on the ribbon.

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.

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.

Note: If the page that you are linking to does not exist yet, a placeholder link with a dotted underline will appear on the page (after you save the edited page).

To add wiki links to other pages, type the name of the page surrounded by double square brackets: [[Page Name]]

Use the buttons on the ribbon to format text, and insert other content, such as pictures, tables, hyperlinks, and Web Parts.

Note: To edit wiki pages, people need permission to contribute to a wiki. Find links to more information about managing access to a wiki in the See Also section.

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: You can configure the site permissions and other site settings for the Enterprise wiki site, from the Site Actions menu.

On the site where you want to create an Enterprise wiki, click Site Actions , and then click New Site .

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 in SharePoint 2010

Before you create an Enterprise wiki, you must determine whether it is the most appropriate solution for the organization and ensure that other services that it depends on are enabled at the Central Administration and site collection administration levels. For more information about planning and creating an Enterprise wiki site, see Enterprise wiki planning (SharePoint Server 2010) on TechNet .

Note: You can configure the settings for the wiki page library, such as permissions, page history, and incoming links, from the Page tab on the ribbon.

On the site where you want to create the wiki page library, click Site Actions , and then click More Options .

By default, 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 there. If you use this method, each new page is created in the Site Pages library. If you prefer to manage your wiki separately, you can create a wiki library that is separate from the Site Pages library.

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 .

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 .

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.

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 a hyperlink to a page that is external to your wiki or even external to your site.

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]]

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.

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.

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.

Add the content that you want to the new page and save it.

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.

To display double opening or closing brackets without making a link, type a backslash before the two brackets. For example, \[[ or \]] .

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:

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.

To select one of the suggested pages, use the arrow keys and then press ENTER, or use the mouse.

Type [[ and then begin typing the name of the page. The wiki will suggest page names that start with what you are typing.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Click where you want to insert the picture, and then click the Insert tab on the ribbon.

You can add a picture from your computer, web address or from your SharePoint site directly to your wiki 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 .

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.

From the wiki page that you want to edit, click Page and then click Check Out .

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.

To see the list of all users who are already sharing the site, click Shared with .

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.

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.

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.

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 .

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.

When you start to type [[ , if the page exists, you’ll be able to select it from the list.

To add wiki links to other pages, type the name of the page surrounded by double square brackets: [[Page Name]]

Use the buttons on the ribbon to format text, and insert other content, such as pictures, tables, hyperlinks, and Web Parts.

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: 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.

You may be taken to the Set Up Groups for this Site dialog, where you can leave default, add, or change groups.

On the site where you want to create an Enterprise wiki, click Settings and then click Site contents .

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 , Features enabled in a SharePoint publishing site or Enable publishing features on SharePoint 2013 or 2016 .

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.

If you create a new wiki page and later want to change its title, see Customize your team site .

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.

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.

In the Name box, type a name for the new wiki page library, such as Wiki Pages .

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.

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.

Wiki

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:

  • 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.

  • 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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