Essential SharePoint 2007, 2nd Edition

Creating Wikis

Wikis are web sites that everyone can edit. Well, not everyone—just Contributors, actually. Wikis are best used to collect content where there's not just one expert. Wikipedia is the largest and most successful example of a Wiki.

Wikis have several practical applications:

• Provide Help for custom applications.

• Create and publish HR assets such as employee handbooks and policies.

• Define terms and acronyms that are unique to your organization.

• Gather history and feedback on projects.

Wikis are suited for any situation where you have multiple authors for documents organized by topic. Most people think of Wikipedia, where everyone is a contributor, as the model for Wikis, but the Contributors list can be one or two authors if you like.

To create a Wiki:

1. Navigate to the site collection where you want the site to reside. If the Wiki is for a project, navigate to the project site.

2. Click Site Actions → Create, and then click Sites and Workspaces under the Web Pages heading on the right.

3. Complete the New SharePoint Site page, select the Wiki Site template, and click Create. SharePoint creates the Wiki site.

4. Click Site Actions → Site Settings, and then click People and Groups under the Users and Permissions heading.

5. Add users who will contribute to the Wiki to the Members group. Add users who will read the Wiki but not contribute to the Visitors group.

When you create a new Wiki site, SharePoint automatically includes a home page and a "How to use this site" page. Edit the home page to provide ...