What is the wiki?

Welcome to the York Wiki Service. A wiki is a collection of editable web pages that is built up over time by individuals or teams of people. A more detailed description of a wiki can be found on Wikipedia.

The York Wiki Service runs on the widely-used wiki platform 'Confluence' and is centrally managed by IT Services. The wiki is secure and regular backups are taken.

Any member of staff can create wiki spaces for themselves or their groups. View access can also be granted to students. You can use a wiki to create documentation, store information or share notes. One of the great features of a wiki is that it's quick and easy to add and change content. Wikis are often informal, and their structure can evolve rather than being designed from the beginning.

Each version of a wiki page is retained, so you can always see the history of a page and restore a previous version if required. You can make your wiki public or restrict it to specific groups.

To get started, from the Dashboard log in with your University username and password.

Statistics

You can see some basic statistics on how many times your wiki space has been viewed or edited by going to Space tools then Activity.

Top Tips

These pages do not provide detailed instructions for working with the wiki, and nor do they cover everything that the wiki can do. Instead they are intended to give an overview of what the wiki is, how it can be used, and how to get started with it. Links to the relevant Confluence help pages have been provided where relevant.


Getting started

For an introduction on how to create a wiki and add pages, see:

You might also find it useful to work through this exercise, which will introduce you to some of the basic techniques used when creating a wiki:

Enhancing your pages

Once you've created your pages, here are some suggestions on how to make your information look more appealing and easier to read:

Some more features to try

Confluence has a wealth of features to explore. Here are just some of them: 

Setting wiki permissions

When you create a wiki you'll need to think about who should be able to view and edit your pages: you can make them public for the whole world to read or restrict them to students, staff, or specific groups. For further information, see:

Finding your way around

A few suggestions:

  • Click onSave for later at the top of the page to add that page to your list of favourites. To see your 'Saved for later' list, click on the login button at the top right.
  • You can 'watch' a page or a whole wiki space. Just click on Watch to keep updated of changes. You can also add other people's names here if you want them to watch your space.
  • To see the available keyboard shortcuts, click on Help at the top right.

What can the wiki be used for?


  • intranets
  • project and meeting management, including agendas, minutes and work plans
  • documentation and procedures
  • knowledge bases
  • group collaboration on a particular subject
  • discussion and comments
  • personal notebooks

Some examples

For some examples of wikis at York, have a look at: 

Making your wiki accessible 

For guidance on how to make your wiki and documents accessible, see:

Regulations and policies

Wiki users are required to comply with the relevant University regulations and policies including

Help and support

For further information about using the wiki, see:

If you need help, please contact:

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