维基百科(Wikipedia)是有史以来最全面和最新的百科全书之一。它也是完全免费的，完全由社区创建。老实说，这是历史上最鼓舞人心的项目之一，但你需要在线才能使用它。
虽然听起来有点疯狂，但您实际上可以下载所有(ALL)Wikipedia以供离线使用(offline use)，我们将向您展示它是如何完成的。
你为什么要下载维基百科？(Why Would You Download Wikipedia?)
为什么会有人想下载维基百科(Wikipedia)？毕竟，该网站只需点击几下，维基百科(Wikipedia)最好的事情之一就是它的更新速度很快。离线副本很快就会过时。
这并不像听起来那么愚蠢。即使是最好的互联网连接也不是 100% 可靠的。还有很多人生活在世界上没有互联网接入或负担不起的地方。
因此，例如，学校的老师可能想要下载Wikipedia并将其分发给他们的学生。您可能还需要定期下载Wikipedia以进行存档，或者在处于(Wikipedia)飞行模式(airplane mode)或远离移动互联网的旅途中浏览。
有多种方法可以将维基百科(Wikipedia)从其服务器中解放出来，我们将一一进行介绍。
如何将维基百科下载到您的计算机(How To Download Wikipedia To Your Computer)
这是获取Wikipedia离线副本的最直接方法。维基百科(Wikipedia)本身每月维护其整个数据库的压缩转储。( compressed dumps)在撰写本文时，下载的压缩格式约为 16GB。未压缩它接近60GB。与像样的闪存驱动器(flash drive)或普通计算机硬盘驱动器相比，这仍然非常小。
使用标准的Wikipedia 转储(Wikipedia dump)文件有两个部分，以便在手边拥有自己的副本。首先(First)，您需要一个软件来读取存储Wiki的特殊格式。两个最好的例子是XOWA 和 WikiTaxi(XOWA and WikiTaxi)。
Xowa可能是最受欢迎的选择，而且它也很容易使用。只需下载(Just download)并运行该程序。然后使用菜单选项(menu option)导入您想要的Wiki，其中包括 English Wikipedia。Xowa还提供了一个更易于使用的Android 应用程序。(Android app)
WikiTaxi也是一个不错的选择，但您需要从Wikipedia 转储(Wikipedia dump)站点下载XML 文件。(XML file)同样重要的是要注意WikiTaxi不支持图像。
有了阅读器后，您需要解压缩维基百科转储(Wikipedia dump)文件，Xowa 除外(Xowa)，它可以直接读取压缩后的转储文件。当空间有限时，这是一个很好的优势！
使用奇异果(Use Kiwix)
与Xowa 或 WikiTaxi(Xowa or WikiTaxi)一样，Kiwix是一个应用程序，它提供了一种读取这些Wikipedia下载内容并以(Wikipedia)Web 浏览器(web browser)的方式呈现它们的方法。最大的不同是Kiwix已经为您完成了相当多的工作。
Kiwix已将离线文件转换为自己的特殊格式并保持更新。您可以从网站手动下载这些文件，也可以使用各种应用程序直接下载它们。Kiwix有一个桌面应用程序版本(app version)，但它仍然是一个测试版应用程序(beta application)。
幸运的是，平板电脑和智能手机应用程序(tablet and smartphone apps work)运行良好。还有浏览器扩展。如果您的手机或平板电脑(phone or tablet)的内部存储空间有限，您可能需要考虑将内容文件放在SD 卡上。(SD card)
Kiwix 网站上的完整维基百科下载(full-fat Wikipedia download) ZIM 文件(ZIM file)重达 78GB，但有一个版本删除了所有图片，将 500 万多篇文章减少到“仅”36GB 大小。
Kiwix(Kiwix isn)也不限于维基百科(Wikipedia)。您可以下载各种不同维基媒体(Wikimedia)项目的离线版本。以下是如何在Google Chrome中使用(Google Chrome)Kiwix的快速概览：
- 安装Kiwix Chrome 扩展程序(Kiwix Chrome Extension)。
- 阅读有关 Zim 文件名含义的说明。(this explanation)
- 下载(Download)所需的Wikipedia Zim 文件(Wikipedia Zim file)存档。
- 打开Kiwix 扩展(Kiwix extension)并转到配置(configure)选项卡。
- 将其指向您下载的文件。
- 离线阅读维基百科。
这是获取Wikipedia离线副本的最简单方法，尽管即使您将便携式媒体上的Zim 文件(Zim file)提供给某人，他们仍然需要 Internet 连接才能安装浏览器扩展程序(browser extension)。对于真正便携和离线的情况，Xowa仍然是最佳选择。
使用维基百科应用程序(Use The Wikipedia App)
Wikipedia 应用程序(Wikipedia app)有一个内置功能，可让您保存和同步您感兴趣的文章。这当然与下载完整备份不同，但它仍然非常有用 。
当您有互联网连接(internet connection)时，您所要做的就是为您感兴趣的文章添加书签。它们将被保存到本地存储中，您可以在方便时阅读它们。因此，例如，您可以在使用学校WiFi时为所有需要的文章添加书签，然后在以后再次浏览它们时保存在移动数据上。
维基百科光盘(Wikipedia On Disc)
Wikipedia太大而无法放入DVD中，但是有一些Wikipedia版本专门设计用于放入一组光盘中。
例如，Wikipedia 0.5提供了来自该网站英文版的精选(English version)Wikipedia文章的子集，以便可以离线获取最流行和最重要的文章。对于需要离线访问信息的学生和其他人来说，这仍然是一个非常强大的资源。
离线访问仍然很重要(Offline Access Still Matters)
维基百科(Wikipedia)是一个重要的项目，作者经常向它捐款。(donates)然而，当你没有互联网连接来访问它时，为创造这个可能是人类最无私的项目 而付出的所有善意和工作毫无意义。(goodwill and work)
事实上，目前世界上仍有大约一半的人无法访问互联网，这意味着提供不需要互联网连接的资源仍然非常重要。其中，维基百科(Wikipedia)肯定是最重要的之一。
How To Download Wikipedia
Wikipedia is one of the most comprehensive and up-to-date encyclopedias ever made. It’s also completely free and entirely community-created. It’s honestly one of the most inspirational projects in history, but you need to be online to use it.
While it may sound a little crazy, you can actually download ALL of Wikipedia for offline use and we’re going to show you how it’s done.
Why Would You Download Wikipedia?
Why would anyone want to download Wikipedia? After all, the site is only a few clicks away and one of the best things about Wikipedia is that it’s updated quickly. An offline copy would become out of date pretty quickly.
It’s not as silly as it sounds. Even the best internet connections are not 100% reliable. There are also plenty of people who live in parts of the world without internet access or who can’t afford it.
So, for example, a teacher at a school may want to download Wikipedia and distribute it to their students. You may also want to download Wikipedia periodically for archival purposes or to browse when in airplane mode or on trips away from mobile internet.
There are various ways to actually liberate Wikipedia from its servers and we’ll go over them one by one.
How To Download Wikipedia To Your Computer
This is the most straightforward way to get an offline copy of Wikipedia. Wikipedia itself maintains compressed dumps of its entire database on a monthly basis. At the time of writing the download is about 16GB in its compressed format. Uncompressed it’s closer to 60GB. That’s still very small compared to a decent flash drive or the average computer hard drive.
There are two parts to using the standard Wikipedia dump files in order to have your own copy at hand. First, you need a piece of software to read the special format in which a Wiki is stored. Two of the best examples are XOWA and WikiTaxi.
Xowa is probably the most popular option and it’s pretty easy to use as well. Just download and run the program. Then use the menu option to import the Wiki you want, which includes English Wikipedia. Xowa also offers an Android app which is even easier to use.
WikiTaxi is also a good choice, but you need to download the XML file from the Wikipedia dump site. It’s also important to note that WikiTaxi doesn’t support images.
Once you have the reader, you need to uncompress the Wikipedia dump file, except in the case of Xowa, which can read the compressed dump files directly. This is a good advantage when space is limited!
Use Kiwix
Like Xowa or WikiTaxi, Kiwix is an application that offers a way to read those Wikipedia downloads and render them the way a web browser would. The big difference is that Kiwix has done quite a bit of the work for you already.
Kiwix has converted the offline files into their own special format and kept them updated. You can download these files manually from the site or use the various apps to download them directly. There is a desktop app version of Kiwix, but it’s still very much a beta application.
Luckily the tablet and smartphone apps work pretty well. There’s also the browser extensions. You might want to consider putting the content files on an SD card if your phone or tablet has limited internal storage.
The full-fat Wikipedia download ZIM file on Kiwix’s site weighs in at a hefty 78GB, but there is a version that removes all the pictures, reducing the 5 million+ articles to “only” 36GB in size.
Kiwix isn’t limited to Wikipedia either. You can download offline versions of various different Wikimedia projects. Here’s a quick overview of how to use Kiwix in Google Chrome:
- Install the Kiwix Chrome Extension.
- Read this explanation of what the Zim file names mean.
- Download the Wikipedia Zim file archive you want.
- Open the Kiwix extension and go to the configure tab.
- Point it at the file you’ve downloaded.
- Read Wikipedia offline.
This is the simplest way to get an offline copy of Wikipedia, although even if you give someone the Zim file on portable media, they’ll still need an internet connection to install the browser extension. For truly portable and offline situations Xowa is still the best choice.
Use The Wikipedia App
The Wikipedia app has a built-in feature that allows you to save and sync articles that you are interested in. This isn’t the same as downloading a complete backup of course, but it’s still pretty useful.
While you have an internet connection, all you have to do is bookmark the articles you’re interested in. They will be saved to local storage and you can read them at your convenience. So, for example, you can bookmark all the articles you need while using school WiFi and then save on mobile data when browsing them again later.
Wikipedia On Disc
Wikipedia is far too large to fit on a DVD, but there are versions of Wikipedia out there specifically designed to fit onto a set of discs.
For example, Wikipedia 0.5 offers a subset of selected Wikipedia articles from the English version of the site, so that the most popular and important articles are available offline. That’s still a pretty powerful resource to gift to students and others who need offline access to information.
Offline Access Still Matters
Wikipedia is an important project and this author donates to it often. However, all the goodwill and work that has gone into the creation of possibly humanity’s most altruistic project means nothing when you don’t have an internet connection to access it.
In fact, about half of the world still lacks internet access right now, which means it’s still very important to make resources available that don’t need an internet connection. Among those, Wikipedia must surely rank as one of the most important.
