FAQs

UCSF faculty, staff, and students may request a Wiki@UCSF space by completing the wiki space request form.

Please read the Terms and Conditions before requesting a new wiki space.  Once your request is approved, you will be notified and the new space will appear in the Space directory (click the Spaces link at top left of screen).

Yes. All UCSF users may create their own personal space themselves by going to the menu under their profile picture/icon (top right of screen) and selecting 'Add Personal Space' from the drop-down menu. You can make it visible to all users or to a select few. 

The difference between a Personal Space and a Site Space is that the Personal Space does not appear in the Site Spaces list. Instead, it is accessed by clicking on your name where it appears on a page, in the People Directory, or in search results. For more information, see Create your personal space.

First, make sure that your confluence login is established by attempting to login to https://wiki.library.ucsf.edu/. When you perform the initial login, your confluence userid is auto-created.

If you have logged in before (i.e., your confluence login was already created), find out (e.g. from team/colleagues) who the space administrator(s) of the wiki space or wiki page you are trying to access or email the wiki administrators to find out who the space administrators are.

Contact your space administrator(s) (see 'What's a space administrator?') to get access. Space administrators are the gatekeepers to their wiki space and can determine appropriate permission levels to individuals.

Some wiki spaces are available to the public or to all logged in users of Wiki@UCSF. Search for the wiki space or wiki page you are looking for by using the Search function on the upper right of the page. You may already have basic access.

We have a new page to help you troubleshoot your access issues:  

Troubleshooting Your Wiki Access Issues

Emailing the url link to a wiki page (or a wiki space) will not work in any of the following scenarios:

• The wiki space where your page resides is private.  This means that access to this wiki space (and all pages therein) are limited to a select group of individuals. 

To resolve: Contact you space administrator to give access to additional individuals.

• The wiki space where your page resides is either login required or public - but the page you are sharing is restricted.  This means that while your wiki space is accessible by anyone (public) or anyone within the UC system or its affiliates (login required), the specific page that you are sharing may have view and/or edit restrictions on it.  
  • Page restrictions:  Page restrictions allow you to control who can view and/or edit individual pages in a space.   It is a way to limit the people who  are allowed access in your wiki space from seeing the content of your page.  
    • Remember that Viewing/Editing restrictions on a page do not grant viewing/editing permissions to users — they restrict these permissions to certain users or groups among those who have already been granted these permissions in the space (see View/Change Permissions).
    • For additional documentation, see Page Restrictions and Permissions and restrictions.

To resolve: Revisit the permissions setup of your wiki page with your space administrator (give access to additional individuals, if necessary) and revisit page restrictions.  

OR

With Confluence 7.4.1, a new page tool:  People who can view is now available.  Click on the upper right corner of your page (...) and then click on People who can view.  The resulting list gives a starting point to determining who can view your page based on wiki permissions.  Then revisit your page restrictions.

For more on wiki space types, visit More Information.

There's a 'Log In' link at the top right of every screen. If you see your profile picture/icon instead, you're already logged in. All UCSF employees and students can log in with a MyAccess account. Users at other University of California campuses (shown in the drop-down menu on the login page) can log in with their own campus account.

Guest MyAccess accounts are available for a fee.  For more information, see User Accounts.

When a user keeps getting the same main page and has a valid MyAccess account, please file a ticket with the Help Desk describing your experience.  We will troubleshoot your account. 

First, make sure you're logged in. Instead of a 'Log In' link at the top right of the wiki screen, you'll see your profile picture/icon. Then click the Spaces button at the top left of every screen and click 'Space directory' to see a directory of spaces, or start typing the name of the space or page you're looking for into the Search box at the top right. 

If you're logged in and you still can't find a space or page, you may not have permission to access it. Please contact the space administrator to request access or email the wiki administrators for help.

Beginning February 2022, all accounts that have not logged in for 18 months will be disabled.  This is a way to allocate the licensing costs to those who actively use Wiki@UCSF.   If the owner of the disabled account needs to access Wiki again, they just need to file a ticket and we will re-enable their access:

File ticket via help.ucsf.edu OR send to HELP DESK; or Chat with Service Desk: 

• Business Application = Wiki (PRD);
• Assignment Group = ITS_BA_WIKI;
• State that you keep getting stuck on the same page after logging in.
• Describe or attach an image of the page you are stuck in.

No. You can access the wiki from any computer with an Internet connection and login using your UC credentials.  Users who find themselves blocked by an organizational firewall may want to try connecting via VPN. If you are still unable to connect to the wiki, please email the wiki administrators.

The wiki is a free service provided by UCSF, but it is intended to be used for active collaboration. If your space has not been updated for over a year, we will notify you that we plan to remove the space and offer you options for archiving it in PDF or HTML format.

Confluence no longer includes a wiki markup editor. If you want to enter wiki markup in a page, go to the 'Insert more content' menu (+) on the editing toolbar and select 'Markup.' To learn more, visit Confluence Wiki Markup.

The wiki is organized into spaces. There are three types of spaces:

• Public: Visible to anyone, no login required to view content, but login is required to add/edit content
• Login Required: Visible only to users who are logged in to the wiki
• Private: Visible only to users who are logged in to the wiki and have been given specific permission to access the space

Most spaces are private. If you don't know who can access a particular space, please contact the space administrator or email the wiki administrators. For more information, see Space Types.

No. Certain spaces have been set up as public so their content can be viewed without a login, but Wiki@UCSF policy does not permit anonymous editing or commenting.  Even in public wiki spaces, users who want to add or edit content must be logged in to the wiki. See User Accounts for more information.

Yes. Files larger than 20 MB cannot be uploaded to the wiki. We recommend storing large files in Box and linking to them from the wiki.

You may not have permission to delete wiki content in that particular space. It depends on the permissions set up by the space administrator. If you do have permission, you'll see a Delete option at the bottom of the Extras drop-down menu (...) for the page. For attachments, there's a Delete link to the far right of the attachment name. If you don't see a Delete option, contact your space administrator to delete the content for you or email the wiki administrators for assistance.

If you're a space administrator, you can go to Space Tools > Content Tools and click the Trash tab. From there, click the Restore link to the right of the page/attachment link. If you're not a space administrator, contact your space administrator or email the wiki administrators to request that the content be recovered.

You can have the wiki send you an email every time someone makes a change to a particular page, space, or blog. Just click the 'Watch' button at the top right of a page and select 'Watch page' or 'Watch all content in this space'. You can also change your 'Autowatch' settings (which automatically subscribe you to watch any page you create or edit) by clicking your profile picture/icon at the top right of the screen, selecting Settings, clicking Email in the left sidebar and then clicking the Edit button. For more information, see Watch Pages, Spaces and Blogs and Email Notifications.

A space administrator is one who leads the organization and management of their wiki space contents and the access to these contents.  This person manages the permissions for the space and can modify the overall look and feel of the space.

The person who requests a new wiki space is designated as the default space administrator of that space. Additional space administrators may be assigned to the space by any existing space administrator and will have the same access, permissions, and responsibilities as the original requester.  We recommend having at least one backup space administrator who can perform your duties when you are away.

Space administrators must be UCSF faculty, staff, or students. To find the space administrator(s) for a given space, go to the Space Tools menu (bottom left) and select Overview. For more information, please visit Space Administration under Wiki Help to learn more about what Space Administrators' roles and responsibilities are.

If you're the space administrator, you can give users access and other permissions in your space. See the instructions on the View/Change Permissions page and the other links in the User Access/Permissions section of the Space Administration page, and see User Accounts for more information about who can get a wiki account.

If you're not the space administrator, contact your space administrator (see 'What's a space administrator?') or email the wiki administrators.

When giving individual users permissions to your space or adding users to your group, sometimes a user cannot be found via the search function.  See what you can do when User cannot be found via search.

To  add additional space administrator(s) for a given space, check the all permissions boxes next to the persons name - the most critical of which is the Admin box.  

Please make sure to walk through all the responsibilities of a space admin with your new space administrator.  

To find the space administrator(s) for a given space, go to the Space Tools menu (bottom left) and select Overview.

We recommend that you check that your outlook is not auto routing listserv emails to spam or some other folder because of a rule that you setup. Otherwise, to subscribe to the Wiki Space Admin listserv so that you are up-to-date with the latest announcements, send a request to WikiAdministrators@ucsf.edu with a list of the following information: xxxemailxxx@ucsf.edu (firstname lastname)

The first time that new UCSF users attempt to login to:wiki.library.ucsf.edu their Wiki@UCSF accounts are auto-generated.  For UCSF users, only the last name is saved by the system as the "Full Name".  

To update your name, click on the circle/picture on the upper right corner of the page.  Select Profile from the drop down menu.

Click on Edit Profile on the upper right area of the page. 

Update your name.  Click Save.

To update your email address 

click on the circle/picture on the upper right corner of the page.  Select Profile from the drop down menu.

Click on Edit Profile on the upper right area of the page.

Update your email address.  Click Save.

To upload/update your profile picture, 

click on the circle/picture on the upper right corner of the page.  Select Profile from the drop down menu.

Click on Picture from the Profile menu.

System generated emails (seemingly coming from WikiAdmins) are sent to you when your profile is setup to track changes on a specific wiki space or wiki page - OR -  when you 'watch' a wiki page, blog post, or space. You 'watch' a space or page when you click on the 'watch' icon on the upper right hand of a wiki page.

There are several ways to stop this auto-generated emails:

• Click on the 'watch' icon of the space/page that sent you the notification and click on the check mark(s) to remove the marks. This is undoing your 'watch' setting for that space/page setting.

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• Edit your email notification settings. Read more about Editing Email Notifications from the Confluence Support website.

Check out the Wiki Basics page for quick tips, and the Space Administration page for instructions for space administrators. The Confluence Documentation site has complete documentation of every feature of the wiki, which runs on Confluence software. To arrange a web-based consultation with a wiki administrator, please email the wiki administrators.

Atlassian, the company that owns the Confluence software, offers a free 120-minute training on Confluence Content Management.  Other trainings are available at their training website.