Wikipedia, is the Windows 8 official Wikipedia app available in the Windows Store. As, this the official Wikipedia app for Windows 8 devices, so whatever information is available in the Wikipedia website, can be accessed using this free Windows 8 app. That is, you can search for any topic, almost anything known to human, and read the articles about it. You can also view photos, click on any hyperlink to jump to that Wikipedia article within this Windows 8 app. This Windows 8 official Wikipedia app is very well integrated with the Windows 8 Charms and features. You can use the Windows 8 search, share, and settings charms to quickly and easily search for a topic, share a topic you liked, and change the settings of this app. Not only that you can also pin a topic to your Windows 8 start screen for later reference or easy access.
Specifications of this Windows 8 official Wikipedia app:
This Windows 8 official Wikipedia app is a well made Windows 8 app. All the information that is available in the website is also available in this Windows 8 app, and for free. Although it does needs some tweaks, still it’s a pretty fine made Windows 8 app.
Since it’s a Windows 8 app, so the integration of Wikipedia with the Windows 8 Charms work well. This is an advantage of this Windows 8 app, as you can’t use the Search and Share charms with the website. The app makes good use of the Windows 8 Search Charm. If you want to find articles of topic of your choice, then simply press Win + Q keys, this opens up the Windows 8 Search Charm, simply type the requisite and and hit Enter. The app shows the relevant article in the reading area.
Also in case if you like to share an article with friends, then you can also easily do that, by simply pressing Win + H keys. This brings out the Windows 8 Share Charm. The receiver will get a webpage URL of the same Wikipedia article.
A really good feature in this Windows 8 official Wikipedia app is the flyout at the bottom, which opens in any page within the app. This flyout is very powerful and handy as well. It contains Read in.., Pin to Start , Open in Browser, and Find in Page buttons. These buttons are quite handy and can make your reading experience great!
The first button, that is Read in.. button can change the language of the contents, to the desired one. Simply open an article, and click on this option. This opens up a menu list of languages available in the app. Simply select the requisite language. Doing this changes the language of all the pages that you’ll open in the app. In order to go back to the default English language, you can follow the same steps, or simply keep clicking Back button on the top left coroner of screen. The app supports more than 65 international languages, that you can choose from.
Pin to Start button is used for pinning an article to the Start Screen. Find in Page button is used to find words in an article. This option is really helpful in quickly finding specific words, lines you were last reading etc. And if in case you want to view the same article in the web browser, then simply click on the Open in Browser button.
I liked the fact that this Windows 8 official Wikipedia app’s interface is kept quite clean. There’re no ads at all. Hence, giving a good clean interface to read. But, honestly the reading articles in the app, will be easier for only those with good eyesight. Because, the fonts are of regular size, and there’s no option to increase the font size, which can be a problem for people with weary eyes. Also there’s no option to change the background of the page; which is available in most of the reader apps.
Still, the app is good, and good thing about the app is it opens with a Home screen page, which is in sync with Wikipedia’s home page, and contains same contents as available in the website home page. But in a more well laid out way. This Screen contains Featured Images, Features articles, On this day , and Recent changes. These are the labels (categories), that contains their respective articles.
Key features of this Windows 8 official Wikipedia app:
- Available for free.
- Good Windows 8 official Wikipedia app.
- Search-read all articles that are available in Wikipedia website.
- Share an article using Windows 8 share charm.
- Pin an article to start screen.
- Schematic zooming to see table of contents.
- Read article in any available language.
- Simple and clean interface.
- Completely ads free.
Also, do check out these free Windows 8 news reader apps: Drudge Report Plus and News Bento.
Final verdict:
Wikipedia, certainly is a good Windows 8 official Wikipedia app. It’s fast-functional. All the interlinking between articles works well; as the way they do in website. Although it needs some tweaks here and there, like including Home button and a search button in the app, plus some aforementioned points in the article. Still it’s good start, and fulfills it’s purpose. Use Windows 8 Search Charm to locate the app in Windows Store or click here to download it.
