17 Tips To Get the Most From Wikipedia

If you like looking at Wikipedia, here are some tips to help you find and read the articles there. You can change appearance settings, view article history and alternate versions, find and link to text inside an article, and much more.
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Video Transcript: Hi, this is Gary with MacMost.com. Here are some tips for using Wikipedia on your Mac. 
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Now if you're like me and end up going to Wikipedia a lot, either for doing research or maybe just because we're curious about the world, then here are some useful tips for getting the most out of it. 
First, you don't have to use a web browser to look up information on Wikipedia. In fact, on your Mac you can do it with the Dictionary App. In the Dictionary App look at the top and see if you have Wikipedia listed there. If you don't go to Dictionary, Settings, and then make sure Wikipedia is turned On. Now instead of searching the dictionary for something and maybe only getting a little bit of information about it you can search Wikipedia instead. You can get a list of all the search results that are found and then you can also look at the entire Wikipedia entry right here in the Dictionary App without having to use any browser at all. If you use All here and you do a search you'll find your dictionary definition, thesaurus, and other things all mixed in here. So it is easy to switch around and go to the entry you need.
You'll also find this in Spotlight. Use Command Space to bring up Spotlight. Do a search. You'll probably find, under Siri Knowledge, the Wikipedia entry for that topic. If you select it and then press Return you'll actually look at a summary of the Wikipedia entry right here in Spotlight. You can also click the Wikipedia link and then jump in your web browser to that page. If you don't see Siri Knowledge and Wikipedia entry showing up go to System Settings and then look for Siri & Spotlight. Then you're going to see a list here for Spotlight Search Results. Make sure you have Siri Suggestions turned On. 
This will also apply to searches in Safari. So if you search for something in Safari, like that, you'll see Siri Knowledge sometimes appear. A quick summary of it and you can click in here to go straight to the Wikipedia page. 
But there are other ways to search Wikipedia. If you're already at the site, of course you can use the Search Bar at the top. But you can also use something called Quick Website Search. The way that works is Cyou simply type Wikipedia and then Space and then the topic that you want to look up. Like this. Then you'll still things like Siri Suggested Websites and all. But look for Search and then Wikipedia.org and then you'll find some pages you can go to right away, right there. Now the way that works is you have to have gone to the website first. So make sure you've been to Wikipedia.org at least once and then go to Safari Settings and then under Search look for Enable Quick Website Search. Make sure that is turned On. Go to Manage Website and you should see Wikipedia listed there. When it is you can search directly to Wikipedia by just typing Wikipedia space and then whatever term you want. What that actually does is execute the same command that happens when you use the Search Box at the top of Wikipedia. But you don't have to be at Wikipedia.org to begin with to do the search.
Once you are on a Wikipedia page, or any page on the internet, you can search on that page. For instance, if you wanted to find out how Siri got its name you can read this page. But maybe you can just search for the word Name in here. If you do Command F, which is a shortcut for Edit, and then Find, and then Define Command here you get this little box at the top and you can search for Name. You can see how many matches there are, and you can go through them. So I can quickly look for a part of the page here that has that word in it. This is a useful technique anywhere but particularly useful when looking at a long Wikipedia page and you just want the answer to one question. 
Now you have the ability to change the appearance of what you see here on a Wikipedia page. Of course you can use Safari's built-in Tools for that under View. You can use Zoom In and Zoom Out or Command +, or Command - to make the text bigger. Also note that you can hold the Option Key down and these change to Make Text Bigger and Make Text Smaller. So it won't change images and other graphics. But you can also click this button here at the top. It looks like a glasses symbol there and then you have a set of Appearance Controls. So you can set it to small text, standard, or larger text. You can change the width and you can change the color. Go to Dark Mode, for instance, or have it Automatic to match whatever mode your Mac is in. You can also move this to the sidebar and then it will just stay here on the right. 
Now one thing some people find annoying when you are at Wikipedia is if you move your pointer over a link it brings up a  little summary of that page. So as you read you are constantly getting these little previews. This can be hard if you're using your pointer to actually help yourself read or remember where you are on a page. But notice  at any of these you've  got this little Settings button here. Click that and you can turn Off page previews. Now you can move over links and you won't be annoyed by those. 
Wikipedia is great for looking up encyclopedic information about any topic. But you also can use it to keep up with current events. If you go to the Menu over here there is a page for current events and this lists pages that have to do with things happening right now. So you can search for a news story happening and see the Wikipedia entry on that and go back to it as the story evolves. So, for instance, I can go to this page here and read about this story here. It is ad free and relatively without bias since it is being written and edited by lots of different people around the world. So it is mostly just factual information that makes it to the page and stays there. 
Another thing to look for is the Languages Menu here. If you click on that you can see what other languages this page is available in. As you would expect this page has a Portuguese version. Now in Wikipedia it's not just straight translation from one language to another. Sometimes a page in a different language can be a completely different page with different writers. A page like this may actually have more information in a different language than English. So you can switch to a different language. If you know that language great. But otherwise you can always select text here and then Control Click, two-finger click on a trackpad, right click on a mouse and use Safari's built-in translation to get a translation. Sometimes getting more information than it what it's in the English article. 
You also may be curious about the evolution of an article since there are different writers and editors working on it all the time. You can actually see a History. That can be useful for any entry but in particular with the current events article. You can go to View History here and see the history and see what is being added. So for instance at this page while I'm viewing it it is being updated constantly. If I go to View History I can actually see those updates in real time and see which new medal winners have just been added. 
Also if you're interested in reading more about a topic but maybe want to breakout of reading just an encyclopedia entry from Wikipedia go all the way to the bottom and that's where you'll find the References. The References usually include some very interesting articles on the topic. Sometimes you can spot the reference, like, in the body but you can always go to the bottom here to actually see the articles themselves and  jump right to them. 
You can also find some really cool things under the Tools Menu here. Click on that and the first one is what Links here. So if you find a topic interesting click on that and you're going to get a list of other articles that link to the one you were just reading and you may find some more interesting reading there.
Also you want to send a link or use a link somewhere on what you are working on. If you go to Tools there is the ability to get a shortened URL. Instead of using somebody else's URL shortener you are actually using Wikipedia's one. So you can copy this very short URL that goes right to this page. There is also the ability to download a QR code if you want. 
Now if you want to send a link to somebody but link to a specific part of an article you can. But you can't do it in Safari, unfortunately. It does work in Chrome so if you happen to have that on your Mac as say a backup browser you can use that. So I can highlight that same text right here. If I Control Click it, two-finger click on a trackpad, or right click on a mouse I can Copy Link to Highlight. When I do I get a link that will go directly to this piece of text. The great think is while you can't make the link in Safari, you can certainly use the link in Safari. So, for instance, if somebody were to click it they would get something that looks like this, which is a link to the article and then it includes the text that it is going to jump to. If you use it it jumps right to that bit of text. You can see how it highlighted that text right there. So you can't miss it. 
Now if you want to create a PDF from a Wikipedia page you may be tempted to go to File, and then Export As PDF in Safari. Or go to Print and then use the PDF button there. You may even want to go to Reader View first before doing that although that may leave out important parts of the page. But you can do this natively in Wikipedia. No matter what browser you are in. If you use the Tools Menu here one of the options is to download as PDF. Then you get a download link, click on that, and it will make and download a special PDF that looks good. 
Wikipedia also has this hidden functionality where you can create a book from many different articles and then send it off to be printed and then mailed to you. So what you want to do is go to Wikipedia and search for Help:books. This will go to the Wikipedia Help page for books. There's a How To here further down the page where there is a link to Book Creator. Go to that and Start Book Creator with that button there. Now you can go anywhere you want in Wikipedia. So I'll start at this page here and you have this Toolbar at the top. You can click Add this Page to Your Book and then it is added. Then you can go to another page and add this page to your book. You can continue to go to different pages and add different things to your book. Like that. So I've added four different articles here and I can show the book. You can get it printed, if you want like this, and then you can preview it. There is no way to print them all as a PDF. But you can use this as just a way to save pages that you want to go back to later. You can see each one of these sections has a link that I can jump right to that article. 
Now there are even more options available if you have an account. An account is usually created by somebody that would be writing or editing articles. But you don't need to use it for that. You can just have an account so you can have some preferences set for how you view a PDF. So you can use the Create Account link at the top here. If you already have an account you can log in. Once you're logged in there's a lot of different things you can do. You can click on this icon up here on the top right and you can go to Preferences. There are a ton of different preferences. Like, for instance, for Appearance there are some skins that you can set and a variety of some other things like format and stuff like that. You can go and add things to a Watch List. So you can easily get back to them. You can set some search preferences. You can go to Gadgets and there is some more things that you can experiment with here. A lot you can do once you have an account which is totally FREE and you're not obligated to actually contribute. 
One last tip. If you really do just enjoy going to Wikipedia just to read about things you may want to check out the menu here. The ability to go to a random article. Just select that and it will go to a completely random article that you can read about and even if that is not to your liking you may find that some of the links from that article go to something interesting. 
So I hope you found these tips useful. Thanks for watching.
Comments: 3 Responses to “17 Tips To Get the Most From Wikipedia”

Sheldon
6 months ago
Thanks bunches
Donald A Tonks
I’m one of the nerds that enjoys Wikipedia and has an account with them. I even donate on occasion 😇
Bradley Smith
3 months ago
The extent of your knowledge amazes me.