Windows 8/RT Wikipedia App Review
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Wikipedia app is one of the best apps for Windows 8 and Windows 10. Curios to learn more about this app? Read this extensive review below.
If you are looking for the biggest free encyclopedia to download on your Windows 8 or Windows 10 tablet or laptop, then you should be glad to hear that Wikipedia has its own official Windows app in the Windows Store.
One of the most awesome Windows 8 and Windows 10 applications that you can currently try in the Windows Store is, without doubt, the Wikipedia application. Personally, I think it’s the best education application in the whole white world.
What else can beat a huge, always growing library of knowledge, and all for free? Currently, there are more than 20 million articles about just anything you’d like to read.
Wikipedia is the free encyclopedia containing more than 20 million articles in 280 languages, and is the most comprehensive and widely used reference work humans have ever compiled.
If you’ve been using Wikipedia until now only on the web, don’t be too surprised by the big difference in the Windows 8 and Windows 10 application.
RT users should not worry, this Wikipedia app works just the same on ARM, x64 or x86 devices.
This means that the experience will be just the same whether you’re on a Windows RT, Windows 8 or Windows 8 Pro, and Windows 10 device.
Currently, the application has a 4 out of 5 rating and has been rated only by 600 persons. As Windows 10 versions will become more popular, expect that number to increase a lot.
Curios to get a first-hand experience with the Wikipedia app? Follow the download link below and install it on your PC.
Update to Wikipedia app for Windows 10
Since 2012, Wikipedia app has evolved. Now it has a proud 4/5 rating on Microsoft store. Here are some of the new features :
- The new “explore feed” feature shows trending articles right on the home screen
- The app was equipped with a word processor for editing/formatting/changing constantly evolving content
- You can now use an integrated voice search feature
- You can use Wikipedia app in nearly 300 languages
Review of the Wikipedia app
The first difference that you’ll encounter will be the main screen. There, just like you can see in the picture below, you will find the importance of the day in history, featured articles and pictures, as well as the articles that have been recently updated by users across Wikipedia.
You will find Wikipedia under the Books&Reference category, but here’s a direct link to it (you’ll find it at the end of the article, as well).
Be sure to check out this article and bookmark it if you like, because we will be constantly updating it as more versions of the Windows 8 and Windows 10 Wikipedia app will appear.
For now, it’s the first version and it’s only natural that there are issues.
One of the biggest changes you’ll notice with this application is that you can pin articles to your Start screen for a later read, which will prove to be quite useful to users.
I always didn’t have enough patience to finish reading articles on Wikipedia, especially since there were a lot of other tabs open. Let’s hope that this feature will help me finish all my articles.
Just like many other apps optimized for the touch experience, you’ll notice that the Wikipedia application is more “shiny” and somehow, the user experience feels more natural.
Maybe it’s because Windows 8 along with Windows 10 is the biggest change since 1992 or maybe Wikimedia has just done a wonderful job.
I don’t know what the reason is, but I like the Windows Wikipedia application much more than than any other application, be it for Android, iOS, Windows Phone or even the website itself.
Early reviews find Wikipedia a very useful app
You’ll find especially helpful the quick search feature, since it will seem so easy to discover the subjects and stories that you’re interested in. But when it comes to the application‘s formatting, there are ups and downs. Here’s what Ryan Matthew Pierson with the LockerGnome had to say about this:
If the primary image has a long caption, that caption will carry over to the second column of the magazine-like arrangement. On some articles, it creates a white space that could easily be filled in by something else. When you drag the application to a side panel, everything seems to snap into place and you get an incredibly cool (and useful) resource along the side of the screen. This makes one of the more important features of Windows 8 that much more useful.
What’s really awesome about this is just how easy everything is set up. You can change the language of a page if you’re not comfortable with English. The easiest part is to search in Wikipedia, you just have to start typing and that’s all. Wikipedia will then find the article and deliver it to you.
One issue that Wikipedia app currently has is with large screens, as reported by TechWhack. Softpedia has also a good opinion about the Windows 8 and Windows 10 optimized Wikipedia:
The app makes ample use of tiles; the home screen is entirely made up of tiles leading to either photos or articles. The article view is catered to Windows 8 as well. You’ll see the page layout customary to Windows 8 apps, the entire thing is quite slick. Even the infobox has been hidden away to leave room for the text and the photos. The app integrates with the global search feature in Windows 8 as well. There’s support for sharing features, you can snap it to the side of the screen and there’s even a pinch to zoom feature to quickly get to the section list. And just like the Android one, the app is open source.
Main features of the Wikipedia application
Albeit nothing can beat and match your own experience with an application, you still need to know what you’re getting on the tablet. So, let’s summarize just what can Wikipedia on Windows 8 or Windows RT and Windows 10 do for you:
- Search – the app integrates almost unseemingly inside Windows 8 and Windows 10 and allows you to search either from the Wikipedia application or actually right from the Windows 8 global search widget.
- Share – if you’ve used Wikipedia on Android and iOS, then you know you can share Wikipedia articles on social media or email. But the new sharing system in Windows 8 and Windows 10 really makes that a pleasure.
- Snap – snap is like minimizing an application in previous Windows version, only that the Wikipedia applications automatically flips to a single-column view. Imagine working on a history project and having the Wikipedia app in your sidebar. Absolutely terrific.
- Semantic zoom – we have reported that Wikipedia app might not be that awesome on large screens, but you should know that by using semantic zoom on large articles you can go to any section of the article that you want.
- Pin articles – using the right-click function you can pin certain articles to your main screen for a later read.
So, have you installed the Wikipedia app on your Windows computer? Tell us more about your experience in the comments below.
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