Here you can digest how to use Wikipedia in bite-sized morsels. The tips listed below were created for the Tip of the day project, or the Styletips project, but are listed here by title and organized by subject area for your convenience.
MediaWiki is opensource and is available for download for free. You can use it for offline access to the Wikipedia database, or to set up a wiki of your own.
However, MediaWiki requires other software to be able to run. The prerequisite programs are Apache/IIS, MySQL4 or later (5 or later as of version 1.19) and PHP5. When bundled together, these are referred to as AMP. They are also open source and free.
To avoid having to scroll to and click in the Wikipedia search box when you want to use it, there is a keyboard shortcut to move the cursor there. Alt+⇧ Shift+F works on most PC systems. For an example of a search box in which the cursor is already focused, see the Wikipedia portal page.
On MacOS, press Ctrl+⇧ Shift+F instead of Alt+⇧ Shift+F.
For a listing of current collaborations, tasks, and news, see the Community portal. For a listing of ongoing discussions and current requests, see the Dashboard.