I use PmWiki for almost all my DMS type web sites (a total of more than 30 sites, on different domains, using several web hosts). I've used all versions of PmWiki since Jan 2006.
What I in particular appreciate is the simplicity of (1) designing templates (skins) for almost any need, look and feel; (2) moving web sites between hosts; (3) software (version) upgrading of multiple websites (farms) in one go; (4) keeping local backup copies of websites.
If you have some basic knowledge of html, css and php and want full flexibility in DMS web site design, you will also like PmWiki.

I have been working with this and I am very impressed by it. The first impression is harsh, very sparse and not a single smoothness in sight. This, in a way is also true for the documentation: it may take a while to grasp certain concepts because it is not put in laymen's terms with nice easy examples to follow along, or gui options or anything. You get the information you need though.

However, if there is one sysadmin who can setup the site nicely and is not afraid of more tech oriented documentation, it becomes a very easy to use wiki that is very flexible.

Powerful concepts out of the box are
- pagelists (display lists of pages in various formats and using various criteria)
- wikitrails (to group pages together in an order with next- and prev-buttons available),
- the (:include:)-facility,
- the ease with which you can overload functionality (for example the sidebar, you just create a grouppage and you have a custom group sidebar, if you wish to include the main sidebar, you'll use the include-directive).
- prefill new pages using templates (not like the mediawiki-templates at all)

It also has useful and quite easy to install extensions and skins (they usually require you to copy a file and add a line to local/config.php, which means it is easier if the admin feels familiar with php-syntax, but there is no programming).

After a server migration (from Linux to FreeBSD) it got broken and i was never able to get it working as it should again. 2 Thumbs down. It was also very difficult to keep spammers out.

It's funny how I searched and tried endlessly for a blog-tool that would allow me to have fast loading pages and enclosure-options for podcasting, but without the extra point of failure of an external database server/service. Turns out the one I thought would be able to do it was PMwiki yet again! I expected many other blog-tools such as Mephisto, PivotX, Wordpress, Serendipity to give me enough options and freedoms, ease of use and stability, but they did not. They are all chaos, compared to pmwiki.

Also, pmwiki is really easy to skin, and the skins/themes/styles to work from are awesome. I really wanted a fluid 3 column skin, and pmwiki again was the only cms that clearly offered this from the get to.

I needed some time and concentration to set up the RSS feeds, to make sure it wasn't just a wiki, but also a weblog, and then it all worked and now it runs stable as a rock, under very high loads. So much faster and more logical than all the others. I can't believe why pmwiki isn't better known. Highly recommended!

Incredibly easy to install for the first time. My first skin was done from scratch in about an hour -- write HTML/CSS (well, that took several hours more, chosing colours and trying tableless), then plug in about five keywords to tell PmWiki where to put its stuff. Can add features as you need them. Very helpful and knowledgable user group that's friendly to newbies, and able to get right into the guts if you need to (and then explain it to the rest of us). Customizing is done without editing the core code, so moving to a new version consists of copying the new scripts over the old. Constantly being improved, and any reported bugs are fixed within 24 hours.

I've tried a number of CMS's before stumbling on to PmWiki. It offers nearly limitless flexibility in terms of skins, security, and extensions. The support community is great. I've never looked back. And for non-techies, backups, restores, upgrades, module installations, etc., on PmWiki are a snap. Nothing like it I've seen anywhere! And the download is seconds. Too good to believe? Try it!

> whether this wiki would be good for allowing access only to individual users?

Yes, absolutely, it can do that with no problem.
See http://demo.opensourcecms.com/pmwiki/pmwiki.php?n=PmWiki.AuthUser for a multiple user setup and http://demo.opensourcecms.com/pmwiki/pmwiki.php?n=PmWiki.PasswordsAdmin for a single password approach.

does anyone know whether this wiki would be good for allowing access only to individual users? i don't want one that is public, but want more than just protecting the entire wiki with just one User ID/PW. I don't want to protect each page either, just a private wiki with named users with their own passwords. would this one do that?

This wiki + blog is a full bliki. It supports SVG, utf8, languages like Arabic, Hebrew, Chinese, Tamil, etc. Through CSS it transformes into any look. More than 200 plug-ins, author authentication, profound multilingual user-documentation, PDF export, very thorough development in regard to backward compatibility and safety. Lack of semantic web features.

PmWiki was very easy to install and do some customization. I like that no db is required and it runs on PHP. Great.

I'm using pmwiki for about 2 years now, and still very pleased. It is not a fancy tool but does the job excellent.

An ideal wiki for documentation, easy to install.

5 minutes to install it, no need for a DB. PmWiki is simplicity for efficiency. Absolutely great.

I've tried many wikis, including Twiki, UseMod, and JspWiki. PmWiki is by far the most easy to install, setup, and configure (I'm not a techie). There are many skins to use... many modules to install... many many features built into the base install... and a very active development community that is eager to help.

Hi, I searched for days for a good solution, tried this and that and then stayed with PmWiki, as it is easy to install, use and maintain. At the same time it allows me all the flexibility I could hope for. Try it!