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Encyclopedia Britannica 2005
Ultimate Reference Suite DVD
Pearson Software
From Customer Review:For centuries,
Britannica has set the standard for reference. Now the power of electronic
search has been added to make complex topics easy to explore. This edition
will come as a pleasant surprise to those frustrated by popular CD-based
encycloedias that are superficial and focused more on flashy graphics than
on scholarly content. Of particular interest are the detailed literature
references to books and periodicals that will form the foundation of a
solid research program. |
# Encyclopedia Britannica: access the
world’s most authoritative information in these 75,000 articles, containing
the entire 32-volume Britannica and more.
# Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary
and Thesaurus: access 555,000 definitions, synonyms, and antonyms with
a click of the mouse.
# World Atlas: take a tour of the
world through more than 1,300 maps linked to articles about countries,
economies, cultures, and national statistics.
# Rich multimedia: view vivid illustrations
with 17,000 images, video, and audio that bring topics to life.
# Timelines: watch history unfold
with timelines that show the people, events, and discoveries of the past.
# And so much more...
Basics:
- Three complete (age specific)
encyclopedias: In addition to the main encyclopedia, this product also
includes, a complete Elementary encyclopedia, a complete Student encyclopedia,
and ten years of Year Book articles (including recent topic coverage).
- Other (age specific) content:
For each of these age groups the product also contains an Atlas feature
(much improved than previous incarnations), a series of Timelines, Dictionary
and Thesaurus (it appears that two versions of each are included, the primary
difference seems to be the exclusion of 'bad words' from the Student and
Elementary versions), and online content.
- Searching: The product does a
simultaneous search across several content types (articles, images, video/media).
Results are viewed by clicking on the content type. A link to on-line content
is also included.
- Browsing: The product has additional
ways to find content including subject browse (one for each encyclopedia),
Yearbook and video browsing, Classic articles, and the standard A-Z method.
- Interface: The interface follows
a very no nonsense approach to finding content, although, it has been improved
in both appearance and function. It's a single screen system that allows
you to see all the controls on part of the screen while opening, viewing
and manipulating content in the larger work/article area. You select an
age specific 'library' to work with and then search, browse, or open any
of the features using simple, intuitive controls. The control area can
even be adjusted to show more of less of the options you work with regularly.
The work/article area allows you to view articles, media or other features
that you choose from any of the libraries. You can have a lot content open
at the same time and move the windows around to organize them.
- The articles: Articles are displayed
very cleanly with much improved font handling and size controls. The navigation
within the article is intuitive making them easy to read. You can find
related content (images, tables, graphs, maps, etc.) or even other articles
that are related in subject matter (using the index or a new feature that
finds related people and places). There are embedded links, a built in
dictionary (double click any word), Search term bolding, a new 'find' feature.
- Other features: The product contains
a number of other useful features including a separate dictionary/thesaurus,
a visual browser, a research organizer.
Improvements:
- Performance: I could not believe
the improvements related to installation and start-up time, over all speed,
and general stability. The product works fast and reliably. I have had
many pieces of content open/active without a severe slow down.
- Articles: There are new ways to
find related materials, the display is much improved, a new 'find' feature
is available, the navigation is much more intuitive and natural, article
text can be copy and pasted into other applications.
- Data: There are more types of
content and more of each type of content (at least according to the materials
supplied). New content includes classic articles, ten years of yearbook
articles, new on-line content, etc. All features seem to be updated to
include more content as well as more recent content
- Interface: - The interface has
improved dramatically, it is intuitive and responsive. It includes many
new features. Examples are mouse wheel support, article summaries that
appear on mouse over, images that appear on mouse over, the ability to
remember what I was doing in other libraries, etc.
- Video quality: The quality of
the video is much better. They are about four times the size and can be
scaled to any size you choose. There are also more of them.
- Browse features: There are new
browse features in this years product including Classic articles, Yearbook
articles, Subject/Topic listings, and a Media browse. It works better and
includes time-saving improvements like an Auto-complete feature.
- Searching: All results are now
in a single scrollable list, the results are more accurate, spell-checking
is improved and happens automatically now, as needed. A search history
is maintained, article titles can be auto-completed, and new advanced searching
options have been added (for searching just titles, etc.)
- Display: The problems with last
years font seems to be fixed, the overall appearance is greatly improved
(it's visually appealing), library homepages have been added (includes
tips and links to library features)
- Atlas: A new atlas that contains
many more maps, country statistics and new features to allow for easy navigation.
- Bolding: You can choose to have
all your search terms bolded in articles that you open.
- Pop-up dictionary: You can double
click on any word to automatically see the dictionary definition.
- Configuration options: A number
of user configuration options can now be permanently set. Includes items
like font size, starting library, and term bolding.
Conclusion:
Even if Britannica was not the most
reliable and definitive source of reference information on the planet -
this is a superior product. It has an excellent design and approach to
content access and management. It is genuinely useful and not simply some
pretty showpiece that is difficult to navigate and use to any real end.
The bottom line is that there is no real alternative on the market.
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