Introduction
In this lesson, we’re going to talk about Wikis – an often underused and overlooked feature in Notion. On the surface, it’s a somewhat redundant feature, but I think it can be really cool for teams just getting started with Notion.
What is a Notion Wiki?
A Wiki in Notion is basically a very lightweight database that is great for building any types of a knowledge base. It’s not a full-fledged database functionally (as you’ll see in a second), but it’s a more streamlined way to build any type of a Knowledge Base than just a bunch of pages on a top-level page (which is traditionally a common way of building KBs in Notion).
A top-level Wiki page is essentially a regular Notion page where all sub-pages gain properties and we get light filtering options.
Copy link to headingCreate and manage a Wiki
To create a Wiki, you’ll need to head to our favorite top-right three-dot menu on any standalone page (can’t be a database or a database page). Then, scrolling down in that menu, you’ll see a “turn into wiki” option. This will turn your page into a Wiki. You’ll see a “database-like” view and search menu pop up, and all of the pages located on this top-level page you turned into a Wiki will become Wiki Pages.
Wiki Pages act somewhat similarly to Database pages – as in, they can have properties. By default, a new Wiki will have three: Owner (Person property type), Verification, and Tags (Multi-select). We can add more properties by clicking on the three-dots next to any existing ones. Wiki pages can have almost all types of Database properties, except ID.
Wikis vs. databases
As you might have noticed by now, Wikis are quite similar to how Databases work, but with some features limited or removed. By default, when you turn a page into a Wiki, some simple Database-like Views are created. The default Home view does not have filtering capabilities, and it just display all pages from a wiki. Notion also creates two views by default in a new Wiki: Pages I own which by defaults filters for pages where you’re the Owner, and All pages, which just displays all Wiki pages.
You can add new Views to a Wiki and have access to most options found in Database Views, including Layout types, Filters, Sorts, and property display. We can’t, of course, swap the Source on a Wiki View, but we have most features that exist in databases available.
Copy link to headingWhere to use a Wiki?
To be honest, I don’t use Wikis in my personal usage much, and neither in our own internal Team workspace – but that’s mostly because all of us here on the team are very familiar with Notion and we’re fine using full-fledged databases.
However, Wikis are fantastic whenever using Notion with a less tech-proficient team. They give you an easy way to organize a lot of loose pages without having to think too much about structure. They truly are “databases-light” and that’s why they work best in a team where not everyone has time to fully learn all Notion features at once (although they probably should – best if they do it through this course 😉).
Copy link to headingSummary
Wikis are a great way to organize a lot of loose pages at once, and are recommended when using Notion with a team. For maximum power, I do recommend using Databases instead of Wikis, since there are some features limited to Databases.