Wikipedia is the world leader in providing information. You can find information there on virtually any topic you can think of, from sports to gaming to tourism, and many out-of-the-blue kind of topics. It has rightly earned the number 6 spot in website rankings worldwide according to Alexa rankings. But the problem with Wikipedia is, you can’t access the information offline. You need to have connectivity to the internet for accessing Wikipedia, which makes Encyclopedias somewhat of a handier option. But now, with your smartphones, tablets or PCs, you can download Wikipedia, and access it offline from anywhere in the World! Here are 5 ways you can take Wikipedia offline.
1. WikiTaxi
The guys at Wikipedia themselves provide Wikipedia dumps, which are updated regularly. These are archives of their entire database, usually in the form of .xml files. These are large files up-to GBs in size. You can download them using a download manager. Once downloaded, they can be read by a software called WikiTaxi. Once downloaded, you can import the dumps into the software, which will then uncompress them and render them for use.
2. Zipedia
Zipedia is another easy solution for accessing Wikipedia offline. It’s a Firefox extension that browses the website offline. You just have to download the same Wikipedia dumps as for WikiTaxi. And you can then use this tool to open the dumps in the form of a webpage.
3. WikiSlice
WikiSlice is another great tool that works in a different way. Forget those large databases that take forever to download. For those of you who go on Wikipedia a lot, you can use the WikiSlice browser tool or the desktop application to save Wikipedia articles for future reading. Ideal if you don’t want the excessively large database dumps.
4. Wiki Offline App
Wiki Offline is an iOS that allows you to download Wikipedia directly to your iPhone or iPad. You can download the entire Wikipedia database, and access it offline. Images are not included by default to minimize the size, but if you have internet access, you can get images directly too.
5. Wikireader
Now this one is for gadget lovers out there. You can buy this cool, info gadget from any large store. It has a 3.5 inch capacitive touch-screen, and is portable, just like your cell phone. And it costs just $99! It can accommodate millions of Wikipedia articles, and can be updated for the latest content!
Those were the top 5 ways you can download Wikipedia offline. If you have questions, feel free to ask them in the comments below. We’ll be obliged to help
