Tools for Taking Wikipedia Offline

The Best Tools for Taking Wikipedia Offline

Would you like to download the entire Wikipedia on your computer or mobile phone for offline reading? Well, here are some good options to consider.

Download Wikipedia Articles for Offline Reading

Wikipedia, the globe's greatest knowledge compilation book, offers downloadable duplicates (or database dumps) of all its wikis that one could probably download and subsequently access the whole Wikipedia substance on workstations that are not joined to the Internet.
The database dumps are frequently updated and include every single article that's available on the main Wikipedia website. The dumps are available as .xml.bz2 files that you can easily open on your computer using the free and portable WikiTaxi software.
WikiTaxi sends with a shipper that will first uncompress the Wikipedia database documents (.bz2) then after that proselytes them into a .taxi record arrange. Now you open these .taxi records inside WikiTaxi much the same as the way you open .doc indexes inside Microsoft Word and, in the event that you are running easy on space, the initial Wikipedia dumps might be assuredly tossed.
A good alternative to WikiTaxi is Kiwix – this is also free software and available for Mac, Windows and Linux systems. You first install the Kiwix software on your computer and then download one of the Wikipedia editions – the articles are packaged as .zim files that'll open directly inside Kiwix without requiring any conversion.
Kiwix is definitely easier to use than WikiTaxi and that packaged .zim files can read across all popular platforms but the downside is that, unlike the database dumps used by WikiTaxi, the .zim files aren't very frequently updated. Also, the zim package for English Wikipedia doesn't include every article though the packages for other languages are complete.
In the event that you possess an iOS unit – similar to the iPhone, iPad or iPad Touch – you might get the great Wiki Offline application and convey every last trace of the Wikipedia pieces in your pocket. The application renders Wikipedia sections in a lovely interface and backs tabbed scanning so you could probably open various sections side by side. Wiki Offline is likewise ready in the Mac App Store for your Mac OS X.
The alternate alternative for utilizing Wikipedia disconnected from the net is WikiReader – this is a 3.5" monochrome gadget with a capacitive touch screen and holds over 3 million Wikipedia pieces. The redesigns to Wikipedia sections are discharged each quarter – you are able to redesign the apparatus by interfacing it to your machine – or you pick to get overhauls on SD cards.
The WikiReader device costs  $99 and though I haven't tried it myself, it did get a huge thumbs-up from Ars Technica. You definitely don't need this if you carry a smart phone that is always connected to the Internet but could be a good reference tool for the rest of us with an impressive battery life – much like the Kindle.
Finally, if all you want to do is download a handful of Wikipedia articles for offline reading, use the built-in book creator that turns multiple pages from Wikipedia into a PDF book.
Also see: Wikipedia Tools & Resources