Saving articles to read later in offline Wikipedia

You can, and it takes one shortcut. Wonder by Zaweba, a free offline Wikipedia reader, has a Read later queue on Ctrl+Shift+D, Bookmarks on Ctrl+D and History on Ctrl+H. Each is kept per edition, and because the articles live on your own PC, anything you save is ready to read with no internet.

That last part matters. A reading list on a website is only useful when you're online. With Wonder, the list and the articles it points to are both on your computer, so a saved article is just as readable on a train or a plane as at home.

Why saving matters more when you wander

Wonder is built around wandering rather than searching. Surprise me opens a random good article, and Follow a random link jumps to a random article the current one links to. Each step goes on a trail bar, such as Otter, Kelp forest, Sea urchin, Japanese cuisine.

Wandering throws up far more than you can read in one sitting. Without somewhere to put the interesting finds, you either break off to read each one or lose them. Read later solves that. One shortcut and the article is in the queue, and you carry on down the path you were on.

Three lists, three jobs

Read later is a queue: things to come back to. Bookmarks are for keeps: articles you want to find again, like a reference page or a favourite subject. History lists what you've opened so you can return to it, which catches anything you meant to save and didn't.

There's a fourth way back in, too. The journey map shows everything read in the last seven days, joined by the links between the articles, and clicking one reopens it. It is the visual version of History.

What "per edition" means for you

Each list belongs to the edition it was made in. A bookmark in the full English edition does not appear when you open Simple English. This keeps every list matched to articles that edition actually contains.

In practice it suits families well. A child reading Simple English in Kid mode keeps their own Read later and Bookmarks, and an adult reading the full edition keeps theirs. If you use Wiktionary or Wikivoyage as well, their saved entries stay separate too, so a list of words to look up doesn't get tangled with a list of places to visit.

Getting started

Download an edition through File, then Library, which shows each edition's size, date and article count before you start, or open a .zim file you already have with Ctrl+O. Then read as you normally would. When an article catches your eye and you don't have time, press Ctrl+Shift+D. When something deserves a permanent place, press Ctrl+D.

Set aside the odd quiet half hour to work through the queue. Read in the clean reading view with whichever theme suits you, light, dark or sepia, and move anything worth keeping into Bookmarks.

A slower kind of reading

The internet tends to push you on to the next thing. A reading queue lets you notice something now and give it proper attention later, which is how a good encyclopedia ought to be read. Wonder's tools are small and quiet, but they turn a random wander into a growing collection of things you meant to learn about.

So save freely. Wonder by Zaweba keeps the list and the articles together, on your own PC, ready whenever you are.