Imagine the complete Wikipedia on your computer or mobile! What if you can go through Wikipedia articles even when you are offline? Yes, it is possible and let’s see how.
The world’s largest encyclopedia, Wikipedia provides downloadable copies, that is, database dumps of all its wikis that you can easily download and then access the complete Wikipedia on your computer or mobile even when it is not connected with Internet.
The database dumps that are updated regularly include all the articles that are available on the main Wikipedia. They are available as xml.bz2 files that can be easily opened on our computers via the WikiTaxi software that is free as well as portable.
An importer in WikiTaxi uncompresses the Wikipedia database files (.bz2) first and then converts them into .taxi file format. These .taxi files in WikiTaxi can then be opened exactly like your .doc files inside Microsoft Word. If there is a low space issue then the original Wikipedia dumps can be discarded.
Another way of accessing Wikipedia offline is Kiwix. This is another free software that is available for Windows, Mac and Linux systems. Firstly install the software in your computer and then download a Wikipedia edition. The articles packaged as .zim files open inside Kiwix directly without needing any conversion.
Kiwix is undoubtedly easier to use than WikiTaxi. The .zim files can read across all the major platforms. But the .zim files, unlike the database dumps of WikiTaxi, are not updated frequently. Secondly, the zim package for English does not include all the articles even after the packages for other languages are complete.
All those having iOS devices like iPhone, iPad or iPad Touch must go for Wiki Offline app to carry the Wikipedia article in your pocket. This interesting application renders the Wikipedia articles in a lovely interface and also supports tabbed browsing such that you can open many article side by side. The app is available in Mac App Store too for Mac OS X.
Another option to use Wikipedia offline is WikiReader. It is a 3.5” monochrome device having a capacitive touch screen that contains more than 3 million Wikipedia articles. The Wikipedia updates to any articles are released once in every quarter. The device can be updated by connecting it to a computer or you can even choose to receive them on SD cards.
WikiReader device costs $99 and has received healthy feedbacks uptil now from Ars Technica. Those who carry Smartphones connected to Internet definitely do not need the device but for others it is a great reference tool with a long battery life like the Kindle.
If you wish to download a handful of Wikipedia articles for reading them offline then use the built-in book creator. This will turn various pages from Wikipedia into a PDF file.