How to create ebooks from wikipedia articles
By Isabella Wilson
Today we are here with cool trick for How to Create an eBook from Wikipedia Articles.
[dropcap]W[/dropcap]ikipedia 0is a multilingual, web-based, free-content encyclopedia project supported by the Wikimedia Foundation and based on a model of openly editable content. This is the place where more than billions of users get information of all the topic for free whatever they search on google search engine. Now when you com across any topic you might don’t have time to read it all at once. So to overcome this we have a solution by which you can convert any topic to ebook and store in your computer to read it later. So proceed with the complete guide below.
How to Create an E-Book from Wikipedia Articles
In this you will be converting any of wikipedia articles to the ebook format that you store either in your computer or in your smartphone to read whenever you needed. You just have to follow the simple steps below to proceed.
Steps To Create an eBook from Wikipedia Articles:
- First of all in wikipedia search out for your favorite topic that you want to save permanently in your device.
- Now on the left sections Under print/export you will find Create a book.
- Now book create page will get open there click on Start book creator there.
- Now on the next page click on Add this page to your book there.
- Similarly you can move some another pages to your book by placing your cursor on the link and then again clicking Add this page to your book.
- Following this step you can add multiple pages and when you are completed simply click on Show book there.
- Now simply fill up all the details of your book in the Manage book page.
- Thats it after this simply click on the download button and your ebook with desired pages will be with you.
So above is all about How to Create an eBook from Wikipedia Articles. With this method you can easily get all you favorite topics(articles) of wikipedia in a single ebook with simple steps discussed above. Hope you like our work, do share with others too. Leave a comment below if you have any related queries with this.
The Wikipedia website includes simple tools to help you create formatted ebooks using content from one or more Wikipedia pages – here’s a sample ebook in the EPUB format but you can also download your Wikipedia books in the more popular PDF format.
You can read Wikipedia ebooks inside the iBooks app
How to Create eBooks inside Wikipedia
The PDF ebooks generated by Wikipedia are well-formatted, ready to print and they even include all references and citations that are found in the original Wikipedia articles.
Here’s a step-by-step guide (or watch video tutorial) that will show you how to convert your favorite Wikipedia pages into an eBook and download them as PDF file that you can print or transfer to mobile for offline reading.
- Click here to open Wikipedia with the Book Creator enabled. Alternatively, you can open any Wikipedia page and choose Book Creator from the toolbox menu in the right sidebar.
- Next browse to any Wikipedia page and click the “Add this page to your book” link to include that article into your ebook.
- You can also hover your mouse over any internal Wikipedia link to add the linked page to your Wikipedia ebook without having to open the page (see next screenshot).
- Once you have collected your favorite pages, click the Show Book link. You can alter the order of pages, remove pages, add sections and more. Next, give your ebook a title and download it in PDF format.
Hover your mouse over a link to add that linked page to your Wikipedia eBook
If you are logged in to your Wikipedia account, your generated PDF books are automatically saved under your Wikipedia user’s directory. You can also edit the template to change the layouter of your exported PDF file.
Here’s another Wikipedia ebook on the Mughal Kings of India. The text of all Wikipedia articles is available under a Creative Commons (share alike) license so it should not be a problem if you ever plan to distribute these ebook files through any of the ebook stores.
Have you ever wanted to write your own book but unable to do that due to the lack of content material or other resources? So, let me tell you that World’s biggest non-profit organization Wikipedia, a free encyclopedia will enable you to make your own eBook for absolutely free. Not only this, you can also physically publish your book too.
So, guys get ready to learn this guide on how to easily create an eBook from Wikipedia articles. In this article I will provide you 3 simple steps to create eBook from Wikipedia articles in a few minutes.
Think guys, who can create and publish a book in a few minutes. Commonly nobody can do it but with the help of Wikipedia, you guys can make this fact possible.
Create an eBook From Wikipedia [3 Steps]
It’s time to hand over these 3 simple steps to you for start creating eBook from Wikipedia articles. In these 3 steps you will learn serially about collecting articles for your book (1st Step), managing your book like tittle, description etc (2nd Step), and third step for downloading or publishing your book.
Recommended Reading:
Step 1 of 3: Collecting Articles For Your Book
Open any article in Wikipedia that you wanna add to your book and look for Print/Export link in the left sidebar. Click on Create a book link.
Next, click on Start book creator button to start collecting article pages for your book.
After the Book Creator has been enabled, the Book Creator box will be shown above each Wiki page. Now, start collecting pages for ebook. To add your favorite articles to your book, click on Add this page to your book.
You can also hover your mouse over any internal Wikipedia link to add the linked page to your Wikipedia ebook without having to open the page.
Step 2 of 3: Manage Your Book (Give Title, Subtitle etc.)
After adding pages to ebook, its time to manage your book in which you can add a title, subtitle to your book. To start managing your book, just click on Show book link at the Book Creator box. (Follow above screenshot)
Next, you’ve to type a title and subtitle for your eBook. You can drag and drop your added pages to make sure which one will be on front and one after another. You can also give name of each chapters in your eBook.
Step 3 of 3: Get Your Book in Your Hand
Everything is done? So, now its time to get your eBook or a physical book in your hand. If you want to download your eBook, then on the same page of manage eBook, you’ll see a download button at right side. You can download eBook in many popular formats such as PDF, ePUB etc.
That’s all, you can read and use your eBook anytime,anywhere or on any device that supports the selected format. In other case, if you want to print your book physically, then click the button “Preview with PediaPress” (Follow above screenshot).
At PediaPress, you can design your book amazingly according to your title in a unique look by adding images and different colors. You can again edit the title of your book and give a best preface to your book. However, the service is not free!
Further Reading:
If you wanna get your book with hardcover or want it in color, be aware because each extensions will add extra amount. After making payment the book will reach you between 5 – 20 business days or according to your destination.
Whether you prefer reading on your computer, eBook Reader, or on paper, sometimes it can be nice to have your research together in a book format. Here’s how to turn Wikipedia articles into a PDF for offline reading or print as a paper book.
Turn a Wikipedia Article Into a PDF
Would you like to save a favorite Wikipedia article as a PDF to read offline or share with your friends? Sure, you could just print an article as PDF directly from your browser, but this will not turn out very nice looking. However, we can use new tools built into Wikipedia to automatically make a PDF copy of an article that looks more like a traditional book rather than just a web printout. To do this, click the Print/export link on the left sidebar in Wikipedia when you’re on an article you want to save.
This will show several options for ways to use this article. Click Download as PDF to have Wikipedia automatically generate a PDF copy of this article.
After a few moments, Wikipedia will open a new page letting you know that your new document has been generated. Click the Download the file link to view the PDF directly in your browser, or right-click and select Save as to save it to your computer as normal.
Here’s our PDF in Adobe Reader inside our browser. Wikipedia generates very nice looking PDFs that will be nice to read on your computer, eBook reader, or even to print out and share.
Create a Wikipedia Book
If you need several different articles from Wikipedia for offline use, it might be better to create a Wikipedia eBook. This makes it easy to get all of the article you need together, organized and formatted like a traditional book. To do this, click Create a book under Print/export on the left sidebar in Wikipedia.
This will open the Book creator page; click Start book creator to get started.
You’ll be returned to the Wikipedia article you were at previously, but this time, you’ll have a new Book creator bar on the top of the page. Click Add this page to your book to add the page you’re on.
This new Book creator bar will follow you on Wikipedia now, so you can visit any page and add it to your eBook. You can quickly add related articles in articles you’re adding, as you’ll see a new Add linked wiki page to your book tooltip when you hover over links in articles. Click it, and that page will be added to your eBook without having to visit the page.
Once you’ve added all the pages you want, click the Show book link on the top.
This will open a page where you can rearrange, sort, or remove articles from your eBook. Simply drag-and-drop the articles to get them into the order you want.
You can organize it even more with chapter dividers. Click Create chapter at the top of the box.
Now just enter a name for the chapter in the popup, and click Ok to add it to your book.
Drag and drop the chapter markers as you want to organize your book. Don’t forget to add a Title and Subtitle as well.
Once you’re finished, you can select to download your eBook as a PDF or ODT formatted document, or order a printed copy of your Wikipedia eBook from PediaPress.
If you choose to download a PDF, you’ll have to wait a few moments while the entire book is rendered and combined.
Once it’s finished, you can preview it in your browser or download it to read on your computer as before. Notice our nice table of contents that was automatically generated; it looks very nice, but unfortunately is not hyper-linked to the chapter sections themselves in the eBook.
The Wikipedia eBooks turn out quite nicely, and include tables, many images, and links from the original article, all laid out in a nice, book-style format. You can now read and share your eBook from your computer, print it out, or transfer it to an eReader to read your Wikipedia book on the go.
Alternately, as mentioned above, you can choose to purchase your printed Wikipedia book from PediaPress. If you choose this, you’ll be redirected to the PediaPress site where you can select a cover color and image from the included articles.
You can also preview how your book would look as a printed book. The book previews look very nice, so if you need a printed book copy, this looks like a very good option.
No matter how you need to use Wikipedia, the new PDF and eBook features make it easy to remix and take Wikipedia with you. We found the eBook creator very easy to use, and were pleased at how nice the finished PDFs turned out. Give it a try and make personalized eBooks with the info you need, for fun or study!
Wikipedia is a great source for all kinds of interesting information. In addition to reading articles online, you can also create custom eBooks out of Wikipedia articles that you can read on your mobile device without a data or Wi-Fi connection.
To create an eBook out of Wikipedia articles, find an article that interests you and click the Print/export link in the list of options on the left.
Click the Create a book link under Print/export.
The Book creator page displays. Click Start book creator.
The Book creator box displays at the top of the article page. To add the current article to your eBook, click the Add this page to your book link.
There are a couple of ways you can add other related articles to your eBook. One way is to hover your mouse over a link in the current article. A popup box displays with a Add linked wiki page to your book link. Click the link to add that Wikipedia article to your eBook. We will show you how to reorder and group the articles in your eBook later in this article.
Another way to add related pages is to click the Suggest pages link in the Book creator box.
The Suggested pages for your book page displays. Click the green plus button next to an article in the Suggestions list you want to add to your eBook. As you add articles to your eBook, those articles are removed from the list of suggestions and a new suggestion is added in its place.
NOTE: If you want to view the article first, click the article link to the right of the green plus button. You can also search for articles on your own. When you view an article, the Book creator box displays at the top. Click the Add this page to your book link to add the article to your current eBook. To return to the Suggested pages for your book page, simply click the Back button on your browser.
Once you’ve added all the pages you want to add to your eBook, click the show link in the Your book box on the right side of the page.
NOTE: You can also click the Show book link in the Book creator box at the top of the page.
The Manage your book page displays, allowing you to edit the order of the articles in your eBook, group it into chapters, and download the finished product.
The articles in your book are listed in a box on the left side of the page. To delete an article from your eBook, click the trash icon to the left of the article in the box. To view an article, click the icon with lines next to the trash icon for the desired article.
To reorder the articles in your eBook, drag and drop articles in the box on the left side of the page.
You can also create chapters for your eBook. To do so, click the Create chapter link above the list of articles.
A dialog box pops up. Enter the name of the chapter in the edit box and click OK.
When you add a chapter, it is added to the end of your eBook. To add articles to the chapter you created, drag pages under the chapter name in the list. Add chapters as you want and organize your articles into the chapters. You can rename chapters using the Rename link next to each chapter name.
Before downloading your eBook, you must select the format you want. Select the Format from the drop-down list in the Download box on the right side of the page. You can generate your eBook in PDF format, OpenDocument format, OpenZIM format (an offline storage solution for content coming from the Web), or EPUB format.
Click Download to download your eBook in the selected format.
A Rendering screen displays the progress of the conversion to an eBook.
When the rendering is finished, click the Download the file link.
If your browser is capable of opening the selected format, the file may open in the browser. For example, our EPUB eBook opened in Firefox. If this happens, click whatever button or link is available to save the file to disk.
You can also right-click the Download the file link and select Save Link As from the popup menu to save the file to disk.
You should have an eBook file on your hard drive, now.
Transfer your eBook to a mobile device capable of handling it and you can take the information with you.
Spreading the Knowledge
As we already know, Wikipedia is an open source free internet encyclopedia supported and controlled by the Wiki Media Foundation. It is the largest encyclopedia to have ever existed consisting more than 30 million articles spanning over 287 languages. Its moderators and contributors from all over the world determine the accuracy of the content. It is also the fifth most visited website on the web with billions of page views every month. Wikimedia itself is a non-profit organization and works efficiently with the help of donations raised periodically to fund their requirements.
The website is a source of general information for nearly every topic known to mankind and topics that are hardly covered anywhere else. It provides easy access to information by maintaining an open environment while ensuring the quality of its content. Users can not only browse through the website but also create eBooks in pdf or printable formats. This feature is highly beneficial when users have to collect and download pages from the site. Instead of saving each web page and browsing through them one by one in a clumsy process, users can easily create an eBook with its predefined engine and structure it the way they like and download or print it for their requirements.
Creating eBooks from Wikipedia Pages
Every time you open an article on Wikipedia, you can find three options for exporting the page on the left menu. You can either create a book, download the page as a pdf or create a printable version of the article. Follow the below steps to create eBooks from Wikipedia pages:
- When you are browsing through an article click on the “Create a Book” option on the left menu. If you can’t find it, expand the Print/Export option on the menu.
- Once you have clicked the “Create a book” option, you are redirected to the Book creation page. Select the green button that says “Start Book Creator”.
- Now search for the articles on the website and when you open them you will find a small menu on top with an option named “Add this page to your book”. Every time you select the option when you are browsing through an article, the page is added to your eBook.
- Once you have added all necessary articles from the website, select “Manage Your Book” from the same menu
- You are then redirected to the Book management page where you can select numerous options to format your eBook
- Provide a Title, subtitle and select the paper size. You can also include a table of contents by selecting the “Include a table of contents” option.
- Now rearrange the articles in your eBook as per your requirements. You can also sort them alphabetically or delete any of the pages and add other articles.
- Once you have finished formatting the book, you can start the creation process from the download panel on the right. Select a format among the options(pdf, epub or opendocument)
- Now click the download button the start the rendering process. Once rendering is complete, click on “Download the file” option to download the eBook to your device.
Conclusion
Wikipedia provides an easy and intuitive process to create eBooks from its webpages, you can also download or print printable formats that do not contain any unnecessary formatting to the pages. Some software and applications also allow eBook creating from Wikipedia but the Book Creator rendering engine from Wikimedia foundation is among the most effective services. It does not provide additional formatting facilities but you can always fire up any of the numerous pdf editing software’s to edit the eBook as per your requirements.
Whether you prefer reading on your computer, eBook Reader, or on paper, sometimes it can be nice to have your research together in a book format. Here’s how to turn Wikipedia articles into a PDF for offline reading or print as a paper book.
Turn a Wikipedia Article Into a PDF
Would you like to save a favorite Wikipedia article as a PDF to read offline or share with your friends? Sure, you could just print an article as PDF directly from your browser, but this will not turn out very nice looking. However, we can use new tools built into Wikipedia to automatically make a PDF copy of an article that looks more like a traditional book rather than just a web printout. To do this, click the Print/export link on the left sidebar in Wikipedia when you’re on an article you want to save.
This will show several options for ways to use this article. Click Download as PDF to have Wikipedia automatically generate a PDF copy of this article.
After a few moments, Wikipedia will open a new page letting you know that your new document has been generated. Click the Download the file link to view the PDF directly in your browser, or right-click and select Save as to save it to your computer as normal.
Here’s our PDF in Adobe Reader inside our browser. Wikipedia generates very nice looking PDFs that will be nice to read on your computer, eBook reader, or even to print out and share.
Create a Wikipedia Book
If you need several different articles from Wikipedia for offline use, it might be better to create a Wikipedia eBook. This makes it easy to get all of the article you need together, organized and formatted like a traditional book. To do this, click Create a book under Print/export on the left sidebar in Wikipedia.
This will open the Book creator page; click Start book creator to get started.
You’ll be returned to the Wikipedia article you were at previously, but this time, you’ll have a new Book creator bar on the top of the page. Click Add this page to your book to add the page you’re on.
This new Book creator bar will follow you on Wikipedia now, so you can visit any page and add it to your eBook. You can quickly add related articles in articles you’re adding, as you’ll see a new Add linked wiki page to your book tooltip when you hover over links in articles. Click it, and that page will be added to your eBook without having to visit the page.
Once you’ve added all the pages you want, click the Show book link on the top.
This will open a page where you can rearrange, sort, or remove articles from your eBook. Simply drag-and-drop the articles to get them into the order you want.
You can organize it even more with chapter dividers. Click Create chapter at the top of the box.
Now just enter a name for the chapter in the popup, and click Ok to add it to your book.
Drag and drop the chapter markers as you want to organize your book. Don’t forget to add a Title and Subtitle as well.
Once you’re finished, you can select to download your eBook as a PDF or ODT formatted document, or order a printed copy of your Wikipedia eBook from PediaPress.
If you choose to download a PDF, you’ll have to wait a few moments while the entire book is rendered and combined.
Once it’s finished, you can preview it in your browser or download it to read on your computer as before. Notice our nice table of contents that was automatically generated; it looks very nice, but unfortunately is not hyper-linked to the chapter sections themselves in the eBook.
The Wikipedia eBooks turn out quite nicely, and include tables, many images, and links from the original article, all laid out in a nice, book-style format. You can now read and share your eBook from your computer, print it out, or transfer it to an eReader to read your Wikipedia book on the go.
Alternately, as mentioned above, you can choose to purchase your printed Wikipedia book from PediaPress. If you choose this, you’ll be redirected to the PediaPress site where you can select a cover color and image from the included articles.
You can also preview how your book would look as a printed book. The book previews look very nice, so if you need a printed book copy, this looks like a very good option.
No matter how you need to use Wikipedia, the new PDF and eBook features make it easy to remix and take Wikipedia with you. We found the eBook creator very easy to use, and were pleased at how nice the finished PDFs turned out. Give it a try and make personalized eBooks with the info you need, for fun or study!
The English edition of Wikipedia Encyclopedia contains around 5 million articles and if someone were to print the entire Wikipedia encyclopedia into a book, the size of the printed book would roughly be equivalent to 2000+ volumes of the Encyclopedia Britannica (source).
Rob Matthews, a graphics design student from UK, converted 5000 pages of Wikipedia into a printed book in 2012. He downloaded few hundred featured articles from Wikipedia and bound them together in a physical book that was almost 1’7” thick. Rob’s website (rob-matthews.com) has been taken over by domain squatters but the pictures of the printed Wikipedia book have survived.
While Rob limited his printed book to the featured articles, Michael Mandiberg’s team has a more ambitious plan. They’re working on making the entire English-language Wikipedia in print format. The work has about 7500 volumes, each made up of 700 pages, and you’ll soon be order individual volumes from Lulu.
The project launched at the Denny Gallery this month and visitors to the exhibition can see the process in real time as Wikipedia pages are converted in digital books and uploaded to Lulu. A Twitter bot, @PrintedWikipedia updates when new volumes are added to the book library.
Here are pictures of the Printed Wikipedia project courtesy Wikimedia.
Print your own Wikipedia Book
Wikipedia does include a built-in book creator that would let anyone, include anonymous non-logged users, create ebooks from Wikipedia articles. You can download these ebooks as PDF files or send them to a print-on-demand service like Lulu or PediaPress and have a custom printed book made of your favorite Wikipedia pages.
February 18, 2014
It’s been awhile now since Wikipedia has made it possible for users to create formatted eBooks from the content of its pages. Wikipedia provides you with an integrated tool called “Book Creator” which upon enabling it allows you to create ebooks from wikipedia content. These ebooks can be downloaded in different formats.
Here is how you can compile Wikipedia articles into an ebook :
1- First head over to Wikipedia and preferably log in but you do not need to log in to do this.
2- On the tool box on the right hand click on ” Print ‘Export” and select : ‘create a book’. Click on ” start a book” button
2- Click on “Start Book Creator” to enable your book creator .
3- Head over to any article you want to add to your ebook and click on ” add this page to your book” which appears on the top of each article
4- After you added all the articles you want click on ” show book”
5- Give it a title and subtitle and choose how many columns you want
6- Now choose the downloadable format you want for your ebook and click download.
If you need some help with what each ebook format is good for, then check out this article.
Published on November 29, 2019 by Jack Caulfield. Revised on December 21, 2020.
In academic writing, whenever you quote or paraphrase someone else’s work or draw on their ideas, you need to cite the original source.
Wikipedia is a useful source of background information that students often use in the early stages of research. However, when you’re writing your paper, it’s usually better to seek out a more reliable source and cite that instead.
If you’re sure you want to cite Wikipedia, make sure to correctly format the citation according to the citation style you’re following. There are many different styles of citation: APA, MLA, and Chicago style are three of the most commonly used.
Table of contents
- How to cite Wikipedia in APA Style
- How to cite Wikipedia in MLA style
- How to cite Wikipedia in Chicago style
- Should you cite Wikipedia?
How to cite Wikipedia in APA Style
In APA Style (7th edition), only the first word of the title is capitalized, and there is no period after the URL. The in-text citation includes the title of the article (shortened if necessary) and the year.
| Format | Article title . ( Year , Month Day ). In Wikipedia. URL |
|---|---|
| Reference list | Evolutionary history of life. (2020, October 16). In Wikipedia. |
| In-text citation | (“Evolutionary history,” 2020) |
APA recommends linking to a specific archived version of the Wikipedia article so that the reader can be sure they are accessing the same version. This can be accessed by clicking the “View history” tab at the top of the article and selecting the latest revision:
The date you include is therefore the date of the revision you accessed, the URL that of the specific revision.
How to cite Wikipedia in MLA style
In MLA style, the title takes headline capitalization, the publisher is included, and there is a period after the URL.
| Format | “Article Title.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, date of last modification, URL. |
|---|---|
| Works Cited | “Evolutionary History of Life.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 13 Nov. 2019, |
| In-text citation | (“Evolutionary History”) |
The date of last modification can be found at the very bottom of the article (“This page was last edited on…”).
Here’s why students love Scribbr’s proofreading services
How to cite Wikipedia in Chicago style
In Chicago style, Wikipedia can be cited informally in the text:
The Wikipedia article on photosynthesis states that…
However, if you want to create a more formal citation, Chicago has guidelines for two different referencing styles: author-date or notes and bibliography.
Author-date
In author-date style, a parenthetical citation appears in the text, and full details are given in the reference list.
| Format | Wikipedia. Year. “Article Title.” Last modified Date. URL. |
|---|---|
| Reference list | Wikipedia. 2019. “Evolutionary History of Life.” Last modified November 13, 2019. |
| In-text citation | (Wikipedia 2019) |
Notes and bibliography
In this style, you cite sources in footnotes or endnotes. You can either use full notes that give all publication details, or you can use short notes in combination with a bibliography.
| Full note format | 1. “Article title,” Wikipedia, last modified Date, URL. |
|---|---|
| Full note example | 1. “Evolutionary History of Life,” Wikipedia, last modified November 13, 2019, |
| Short note format | 1. Wikipedia, “Shortened Article Title.” |
|---|---|
| Short note example | 1. Wikipedia, “Evolutionary History.” |
| Bibliography format | Wikipedia. “Article Title.” Last modified Date. URL. |
| Bibliography example | Wikipedia. “Evolutionary History of Life.” Last modified November 13, 2019. |
Should you cite Wikipedia?
Using Wikipedia as a source is generally discouraged in academic writing, and your institution may even have a specific rule against doing so.
Why is Wikipedia not considered a reliable source?
Wikipedia is a compilation of information from various places rather than an original source in itself; in general, only primary and secondary sources should be cited in an academic paper. In addition, Wikipedia pages can be edited by anyone, which makes it difficult to determine the accuracy of the information they contain.
This doesn’t mean that you can’t use the site at all. Wikipedia is often a good starting point for your research, since most of its articles comprehensively cite the original sources of information.
How to use Wikipedia wisely
You can often find useful sources through sections like references, further reading, and external links, located at the bottom of a Wikipedia article. Look for reliable sources such as scholarly journals, published books, and official websites.
You may occasionally want to cite a piece of general (rather than specialist) information from Wikipedia. When doing so, it’s good practice to independently verify any information you are not sure about before citing it.
Make sure to check for any warnings at the top of the article that might indicate the information is unreliable. In this case, it might not be a good idea to use the article even for background information.
