Chapter 40

Creating an Enterprise Wiki Site

Wikis are a very useful means of creating documentation and sharing knowledge in an organization. They are more user-friendly for storing frequently accessed and updated information than lots of files on a hard drive or network folder. The information on a wiki is presented as a web page and is very easy to edit directly from a browser: users can easily add text, links, multimedia, and other content. By contrast, documentation and procedure-related content that sit in word-processing files may be accessed rarely and be less pleasing to use. Users have to open file after file to browse this information, and the files may soon become outdated or contradictory.

A wiki site is a good choice when you have content that will have many editors and many readers. Some of the types of content that wikis are particularly suited for include the following:

  • Process documentation.
  • General rules and procedures.
  • Frequently asked questions.
  • Technical documentation.
  • Department policies.

Wiki Features

There are two different ways to implement wiki functionality in SharePoint 2010. One is to create a wiki page library, which can be created on any site. The other is to create a site using an Enterprise wiki template. The basic functionality of a wiki is the same for both. The Enterprise wiki site has additional features conducive to large-scale use, such as the following:

  • Custom page layout: Enterprise wikis are built using the SharePoint publishing infrastructure. ...

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