Microsoft Loop: A New Home for Your Wiki
As a longtime SharePoint user, I understand the frustration felt when SharePoint’s native wiki functionality was removed a few years ago. Before that, we used it a lot for things like knowledge management and documentation. When Microsoft retired the classic SharePoint wiki pages, it left many teams scrambling for alternatives that could match the interconnected, easy-to-navigate knowledge structure we’d come to rely on. If you’re looking for a new solution in Microsoft 365, I have good news: Microsoft Loop might just be the answer you’ve been waiting for. Loop’s backlinks functionality and flexible page structure offer many of the capabilities we loved in SharePoint wikis, plus some powerful new features that take knowledge management to the next level. In this post and video, I’ll show you how to recreate your SharePoint wiki experience using Microsoft Loop.
What Makes Microsoft Loop Special?
If you’re not familiar with Microsoft Loop yet, it’s a versatile productivity tool that’s become one of my favorites in the Microsoft 365 ecosystem. This is because Loop provides a flexible canvas for creating and sharing information through three main components:
Loop Workspaces – These are your top-level containers for organizing projects, teams, or topics. Think of them as digital folders that house all your related content.
Loop Pages – These flexible canvases let you add rich content, manage tasks, and integrate with other Microsoft tools. This integration and adaptability make them powerful – you can structure information however makes sense for your team.
Loop Components – These shareable pieces of content can be embedded in Teams conversations or emails, allowing multiple users to edit them simultaneously, regardless of where the component appears.
What I love about Loop is how seamlessly these elements work together, creating a fluid experience that adapts to your team’s flow of work rather than forcing you into rigid structures.
Creating a Wiki with Microsoft Loop’s Backlinks
The introduction of backlinks in Microsoft Loop has been a game-changer for those of us who relied on SharePoint’s wiki linking functionality. As someone who frequently builds knowledge bases for consulting customers, I’ve found this feature especially valuable for recreating what we loved about SharePoint wikis.
Here’s how I approach creating a wiki-style knowledge base in Loop:
1. Start with a workspace – For example, I recently created one called “IW Mentor Team” for an IT documentation project.
2. Create a hub page – This serves as your wiki’s homepage and navigation center. I usually name mine something straightforward like “IT Documentation Hub.”
3. Develop your subpages – Create dedicated pages for different topics. For IT documentation, I typically include pages for server configurations, desktop troubleshooting, software deployment, and other relevant categories.
Connect everything with backlinks to mimic a wiki
This is where the magic happens! To create backlinks between pages:
1. Navigate to the page you want to link to
2. Select “Share Page Link”
3. Paste the link wherever you need it on another page.
What I love about this approach is how organic the navigation becomes. Unlike traditional wikis that often require complex setup, Loop’s backlinks feel intuitive and simple. When I paste a link into an empty space, Loop automatically creates a link that looks clean and professional.
Building an IT Documentation Hub as a Wiki or Knowledgebase
When I’m setting up an IT documentation hub for a client or team, I follow a specific structure that I’ve refined over time:
First, I create a central landing page that serves as the gateway to all documentation. On this page, I include:
- A brief overview of the documentation’s purpose
- Quick links to the most frequently accessed pages
- A table of contents organized by category
Next, I build out subpages for each major system or process. What’s particularly useful is that if you would like a table of contents on a page, you can insert one, and it automatically generates a table of contents based on your H2 and H3 headers, which helps with navigation and provides a quick overview of each page’s content. This doesn’t apply to the whole page/subpage structure, it’s just for the page you’re on.
For IT teams specifically, I’ve found that organizing documentation with both systems-based pages (like “Server Infrastructure”) and task-based pages (like “Onboarding New Employees”) provides the most comprehensive coverage.
Leveraging Loop’s Advanced Features
Beyond basic wiki functionality, I’ve discovered several features that make Loop particularly powerful for knowledge management:
Version History
Similar to SharePoint, Loop includes robust version tracking. This has saved me when I needed to revert to a previous version or understand who made specific changes. The visual timeline makes it easy to see the evolution of who changed what and when, and restore previous versions when necessary.
AI Recap with Copilot
One of my favorite recent additions is Copilot integration. When I return to a document after some time away, I can ask Copilot for a quick recap of changes. Even more impressively, I can ask Copilot questions about the content, which is incredibly useful for large documentation sets.
Linking Tasks to Planner
The ability to connect task lists in Loop to Microsoft Planner has been a significant enhancement to my workflow. This integration ensures that tasks remain synchronized between both platforms, making it easier to manage project-related documentation and actions in one cohesive system.
For example, when documenting a new software deployment process, I can create tasks directly in the documentation that sync to Planner, where my team manages their work. This creates a seamless connection between documentation and execution.
Locking a Page
One of the less-known features is the concept of locking a page. If you’d like to give those page editors an extra step so they don’t accidentally make edits, you can lock each page so that it has to be unlocked to edit it. Click the ellipsis at the top right of a page to get to this:
Sharing and Collaboration Considerations for Creating Loop Pages as a Wiki
When working with sensitive IT documentation, controlling access is crucial. Loop offers flexible sharing options:
- You can share entire workspaces with your core team
- Individual pages can be shared with specific people who need limited access
- Permission levels can be set to “Can View” for read-only access
I typically recommend keeping your core documentation workspace restricted to the IT team, while selectively sharing specific pages with broader audiences when necessary.
Final Thoughts
Microsoft Loop has fundamentally changed how I approach documentation and knowledge management. With the combination of flexible pages, seamless sharing through components, and the powerful backlinks feature makes it an ideal platform for creating living, breathing knowledge bases.
For IT teams especially, the ability to create interconnected documentation that’s easily navigable, consistently updated, and integrated with task management tools addresses many of the challenges traditional documentation methods present.
If you haven’t explored Loop yet, I encourage you to start small—perhaps with a single project or knowledge area—and experience firsthand how it might transform your team’s approach to information sharing and documentation.
As Microsoft continues to enhance Loop with new features and deeper integration with the broader Microsoft 365 ecosystem, I’m excited to see how this tool evolves and how teams will leverage its capabilities to build more effective, accessible knowledge resources.
References
Here are some relevant links and references:
My post: Microsoft Loop Rules and Power Automate
Microsoft: Get started with Microsoft Loop
Microsoft: Loop components in Teams
Microsoft: Loop access via Microsoft 365 subscriptions – Microsoft Support
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