Wiki Pages are better than Word Documents for your Intranet

I have been advising Auckland companies about Content Management for a number of years.  Every company, I work with, struggles with the best way to distribute content. 

I maintain the best way to popularise content is to get rid of your documents. 

Copy content out of PDF and Word files and paste it into SharePoint wiki pages.  Word is a great tool for creating content, but not for distributing content in our browser-based world.  Wiki pages are just more effective.

5 reasons Wiki's are better than Docs.

1. Accuracy: The timeliness or accuracy of Word content is instinctively doubted by users (is this really the latest or indeed correct version?)
2. Load Time: It takes time to load the Word or PDF application before you can read the content (I call the Word loading screen the new "blue screen of death!")
3. Effort: Few users will scan or search through a 50 page document to fine the one paragraph they need.  Breaking a 50 page document into multiple wiki pages will make it easier to find the paragraph you are after.
4. Popularity: Users don't see Word or PDF files anywhere else on the internet (just at work)
5. Mobile: Word and PDFs are annoying for mobile users.

Accuracy

The Internet has taught users to accept timely content is served in a browser window.  Users now instinctively doubt accurate content will be found in a static Word or PDF file unless it is emailed to them that morning.  At the back of a user's mind is the uncomfortable feeling they are not viewing the latest version of the document.  Simply by moving the same content on to a department's maintained Wiki page will allay these fears.

Load Time

Opening documents in client applications adds an additional step to the discovery process.  Longer load times increase the chance users will abandon search, and revert to trawling through file shares, or worse ringing or emailing you to find the information for them!

Effort

Document creators love creating overly long documents.  50+ pages, might be OK if you are creating a policy to be printed and read, but is unacceptable on a web page.  Overlong documents must be broken down into manageable pages.  The shorter these pages, the easier it is for end users (via search engines) to find the content they are after.   

An annoyance in the Internet Age is the persistence of the Title Page, Revisions Page, Sign-Off Pages, Tables of Contents Pages, all of which get scrolled through to read the content itself.  These pages are safely removed from wiki content.  Sign-Off Dates, and Approving Managers become values in associated Site Columns rather than the content of the first five pages of a seven page document.

Popularity

End users rarely see Word Documents or PDF's in the wild.  Nobody shares PDF's or Word Documents on Facebook.  A PDF will never go viral.  Few retweet links to Word Documents.  Users are comfortable with the familiar, and in the digital age that is content served on a web page.

Mobile

As any mobile user will attest, opening Word or PDF files on a mobile, is tedious.

After you copy content to a wiki page you may need to maintain Word or PDF versions of files (these formats are useful for emailing to clients or printing), but the goal of your intranet should be to present content in the web browser first.

After copying a few word documents into a Wiki to prove my point, most clients see the light and are happy to apply the concept to the rest of their content. 

It really is a two minute lesson for users to learn how to add content to a Wiki

1. Edit any wiki Page
2. type New Page Name
3. save page
4. click on the New Page Name link
5.  add content to new page
6. click Save.

 Good luck transferring your content to Wiki pages.  You won't regret it.