[Note: PBwiki’s top priority is improving access controls. We’ll be releasing a new system in early November. Stay tuned for more details.]
PBwiki offers a number of ways to share your wiki with others.
To share your wiki using a single wiki password
Why you might do this
- You want the simplest way to let users in and are not concerned about keeping track of users
- You don’t need sophisticated access controls, just quick access to the wiki
How to do it
Email the wiki URL to your friends and include the password. For example, “Hi all, to get to the planning wiki, visit http://yummy.pbworks.com — the password is fantasia”
Free or Premium users
Your wiki-wide password is the password you created when you signed up. Note that if you have a free wiki and you share the password, visitors will effectively be administrators of the wiki, with the ability to add pages, delete pages, and more. (They will not be able to delete the wiki. Only the wiki creator can do that.)
Premium users only
For more sophisticated access controls, upgrade to a Premium account. Premium users, click “Settings” >> “Passwords and access” to set passwords for readers, contributors, moderators, and administrators (Compare access levels here). For example, to give access to your co-workers to edit your wiki (but not delete pages), share the contributor password with them.
To share wiki access without requiring a password
Why you might do this
- You want to invite lots of users to PBwiki (e.g., by sending a single link to a mailing list)
- You don’t want to bug users with a password prompt
- You don’t need sophisticated access controls, just quick access to the wiki
How to do it
Copy the magic link in your wiki and paste it.

Anyone who clicks the link will be given instant access without requiring a password. Note that…
- If the link is released publicly (without your consent), we recommend you change your password
- Using the magic link does not allow you to remove specific users from your wiki. To do so, change the wiki-wide password (Settings >> Passwords and Access)
To add specific users (with the ability to uninvite them)
Why you might want to do this
* You only want to invite specific people
* You want to keep track of who has access and who edited what
* You need the ability to immediately remove users
How to do it
1. Ask your users to create a PBwiki Identity at http://my.pbworks.com. (This involves setting up a username/password of their own.)
1.a. (For Premium wikis) Log in to your wiki, click “Settings” >> “Passwords and access” and set the level of password you want: Reader, Contributor, Moderator, Administrator (Compare access levels here).
2. Click users and invite them by email.
To add specific / mass amounts of users (without the ability uninvite them)
Why you might want to do this
- You want to email large amounts of users from your address book
- You don’t need sophisticated access controls, just quick access to the wiki
How to do it
Click “Share this wiki” at the bottom of your wiki. You’ll be able to email large amounts of users, including directly from your web-based address book (e.g., Gmail, Yahoo). Free wikis will send full access to invitees, while Premium users can select more granular levels of access controls.