TABLE 6.2. Wiki features particularly useful for team writing projects

Feature Description
Free hosting With free hosting, the wiki exists on someone else’s server and requires no setup before using. Most free wikis place a quota on the amount of content your team is allowed to store. Be sure to check this quota and make sure it will be sufficient for your project’s needs. Graphics-intensive projects will need large quotas.
WYSIWYG WYSIWYG (an acronym for “what you see is what you get”) refers to software in which the content displayed during editing appears very similar to the final output. Unless your team has some reason for working with the messy details of markup language, you should make sure the wiki has WYSIWYG capabilities.
E-mail Notification Allows you to e-mail your team when changes have been made. A notification method is extremely important.
Export options If you are required to print your project, you need to pay careful attention to export and print options. Options include exporting to HTML and PDF.
Page history/revision history Allows team members to see what was changed and to undo controversial changes if necessary.
Change summary Allows a team member who revises a page to include a short summary of the changes made.
Revision diffs Shows the differences between two pages’ revisions, making it easy to spot the differences.
Page permissions Allows teams to make some pages “public” (available to anyone) or “private” (available only to the team). The team can also “lock” some pages so that they are visible but cannot be edited.
Comments/discussion pages Provides a system for discussing individual wiki pages. The most common method is a threaded discussion at the bottom of a page.
Attach files Allows team members to attach external files to their pages. For instance, team members could upload PDFs of articles or other materials related to the project.
Math formulas Allows math formulas to be displayed in the wiki page. This feature is needed only for technical projects in which writers are expected to provide examples of the calculations or algorithms used during the project.