Download Free Tools to Take Wikipedia Offline

Everyone loves Wikipedia, it is one of those sites that you can not live without. We use it as frequently as Google to search for some particular information.

The only problem or should I say a negative aspect about Wikipedia is that you need to connect to the internet in order to view and search information from it.

What if you are away from your Desktop or traveling to a distant land where accessing through the web is impossible. What if you desperately need to find some very important information? Feeling Stranded?

Don’t worry! Here is a short list of some of the offline tools for Wikipedia that might come is handy, with the help of these tools you can download Wikipedia for offline use and above all you won’t have to spend money on them.

Zipedia

Zipedia is a Mozilla Add-on for Firefox giving you the leverage to browse Wikipedia offline. In order to view read only stuff, you will have to type(example): ‘wikipedia://wiki/Egypt‘ (without quotes)

Plus, you will need to download the wikipedia XML dump for offline use, but you won’t need to run MySQL as this is done by the browser itself.

It works on Windows OS, with Firefox v2.0-3.0+.

[Download]

Pocket Wikipedia

Pocket Wikipedia is a very useful utility, that comprises a size of fifteen volume encyclopedia of 24,000 images and over 14 million words!

The articles are hand-picked to cover the widest range of material that can fit into 175MB, and the interface is condensed to offer quick searching and indexing on mobile devices.

You can even get images just like in the original version. It is good for quick and ready references, but doesn’t cover whole of Wikipedia.

Pocket Wikipedia is compatible with Windows and Linux systems.

[Download]

WikiSlice

WikiSlice as the name suggests is a slice of Wikipedia based on a particular topic.

You can create ‘slices’ of the topics or sub topics you are visiting and then download it onto your system, for easy on the go reading. You also see popular pages related to what you are searching or browsing.

Here is how to use WikiSlice:

1. Type in your topic and click ‘Go’.

2. You get the information and related subtopics

3. Download the Wikislice offline if the number of pages is less than 2000.

4. The downloaded pages can be used with the Webaroo software. The app will check if you have the software installed on first use. In case you don’t, it will prompt you for the download.

Works with Windows OS.

[Downlaod]

WikiTaxi

With WikiTaxi you can read, search, and browse Wikipedia. All the pages are stored in a WikiTaxi database. It  uses compression to make sure that the database stays reasonably small. The huge English Wikipedia easily fits on a 8 GB memory stick.

An included WinTaxi importer contains this database into a WinTaxi database for you to browse offline. The database dumps are updated every few weeks. If you feel that your offline Wikipedia is getting to old, you can go online to download a more recent version or just copy it from a friend.

[Download]

Have you used any other softwares? Sharing with us would be a good idea.