Create free books from Wikipedia articles

Launch a web browser and visit the Wikipedia website, at http://en.wikipedia.org. In order to make use of the site’s book-creation tool, a Wikipedia account is needed. Click the ‘Log in/create account’ link in the top right-hand corner of the page. If you already have an account, enter your username and password before clicking the Log in button. Otherwise, click the ‘Create one’ link to sign up for an account. Enter the Captcha text to confirm you’re human and, after choosing a username and password, enter your email address and click the ‘Create account’ button.

Return to the Wikipedia home page by clicking the Main page link in the left-hand navigation pane. Now click the Print/export link. In the expanded list of options, click the ‘Create a book’ link and then click the green ‘Start book creator’ button. A new panel will appear at the top of the page, headed ‘Book creator’. This will appear above any article that is viewed and is used to start collating the material that will make up the book.

Navigate through Wikipedia as normal, using the Search box at the top of the page to home in on particular articles. To include an entry in the book, scroll back to the top of the page and click the ‘Add this page to your book’ link in the Book creator panel we mentioned earlier. As pages are added, the panel indicates how many pages make up the book.

The vast majority of Wikipedia articles include links to related articles. Visiting each of these pages can easily become a time-consuming process. However, it’s possible to add linked material to the book without visiting every page. Hover the mouse pointer over a link in an article, and a pop-up will appear: click the ‘Add linked wiki page to your book’ link to mark the page for inclusion in the book. To include pages en masse, first click one of the Categories links at the bottom of an article. Now return to the Book creator panel at the top and click the ‘Add this category to your book’ link.

If you Change your mind about the page or category just added, click the ‘Remove this…’ link in the Book creator panel. To find Wikipedia content that might be relevant to articles already added, click the Suggest pages link in the panel. Suggested pages can be visited by clicking their title links, or added to the book by clicking the green + icon next to the entries in the Suggestions list.

Once a number of articles have been added, click the ‘Show book’ link in the Book creator panel. Note that this link is also useful for keeping track of how many pages have been added. The ‘Manage your book’ page that appears can be used to customise and complete the book. Start by entering a suitable title and subtitle for the book.

If a large number of pages have been added to a book, it makes sense to divide articles up into chapters to help keep related information together. Click the ‘Create chapter’ link and enter a title before clicking OK. Any spelling mistakes can be rectified by clicking the Rename link next to chapter heading. Chapters and articles can be reordered as required by either clicking the Sort alphabetically link, or by simply dragging and dropping a heading to a new position.

Completed books can be saved in two formats – PDFs that can be viewed using software such as Adobe Reader, or OpenDocument format that can be opened in the free Openoffice suite (www.openoffice.org). In the Download section of the ‘Manage your book’ page, select the relevant file type from the Format dropdown menu and click Download. There will be a delay while the pages of the book are collated and appropriately formatted: how long will depend on the number of articles involved.

When the book has been created, click the ‘Download the file’ link. If Adobe Reader is installed, it will be launched automatically to display the PDF file. To save a copy of the PDF to the computer’s hard disk, click the File menu followed by the Save a Copy option. Choose where the file should be saved, enter a suitable name and click Save. Note that if you do not have a program capable of displaying the book installed, then clicking the Download the file link will result in a prompt to choose where to save the file.

As well as creating digital books from Wikipedia articles, the book-creation tool can also be used to create a real, printed book. On the ‘Manage your book’ page, click the Preview with Pediapress button in the ‘Order as a printed book’ box. The Pediapress site that loads enables you to customise the title and colour scheme of the book, as well as choosing a cover image. Use the Click to preview link to check how the book looks and, if happy, opt to have it printed as a paperback by clicking Add to Cart.