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Encyclopedia Britannica 2006 Ultimate Reference Suite Win-Mac DVD 01 July, 2005

Encyclopedia Britannica 2006 Ultimate Reference Suite Win-Mac DVD 01 July, 2005

Author Company: Avanquest Publishing USA- Inc.

Encyclopedia Britannica 2006 Ultimate Reference Suite Win-Mac DVD 01 July, 2005 5 stars (Completely Revamped) - The Encyclopedia Britannica 2006 (established

Efficient. Search results are organized by relevancy 01 July, 2005 Screenshots reviewed in Teaching Tools directory of Home & Education

File Size: 47.79 kB
OS: Windows 98 / NT / 2000 / ME / XP / VISTA
License: DVD-ROM - Time Limit, free to try, 49.99 to buy.

Software Developed by Avanquest Publishing USA- Inc.

Download now (47.79 kB)

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Encyclopedia Britannica 2006 Ultimate Reference Suite Win-Mac DVD - 5 stars (Completely Revamped) - The Encyclop

Internet and Computer Activity Monitoring 5.1

Encyclopedia Britannica 2006 Ultimate Reference Suite Win/Mac DVD review:5 stars (Completely Revamped) - The Encyclopedia Britannica 2006 (established in 1768) is a completely revamped product. Its interface is intuitive and uncluttered. It is far more fun to use. For instance, it now offers a date-based daily selection of relevant articles. The search box is persistent - no need to click on the toolbar's "search" button every time you want to find something in this vast storehouse.

The new Britannica's display is tab-based, avoiding the erstwhile confusing proliferation of new windows with every move. Most importantly, articles appear in full - not in sections. This major improvement facilitates finding relevant keywords in and the printing of entire texts. These are only a few of dozens of user-friendly alterations and enhancements. The 2006 edition is a breakthrough. The Britannica seemed to have finally got it entirely right.

The Britannica provides considerably more text than any other extant encyclopedia, print or digital. But its has noticeably enhanced it non-textual content over the years (the 1994-7 editions had nothing or very little but words, words, and more words).

The Britannica fully supports serious research. It is a sober assemblage of first-rate essays, up to date bibliographies, and relevant multimedia. It is a desktop university library: thorough, well-researched, comprehensive, trustworthy.

The Britannica's 80-100,000 articles (depending on the version) are long and thorough, supported by impressive bibliographies, and written by the best scholars in their respective fields. The company's Editorial Board of Advisors reads like the who's who of the global intellectual and scientific community.

The Britannica comes bundled with an atlas (and 287 World data Profiles of individual countries and territories), the Merriam-Webster Dictionary and Thesaurus, classic articles from previous editions, eleven yearbooks, an Interactive Timeline, a Research Organizer, and a Knowledge Navigator (a Brain Stormer).

In its new form, the Britannica is as user-friendly as the Encarta. Regrettably, it is updated only 2-4 times a year, a serious drawback, only partially compensated for by 3 months of free access to the its impressive powerhouse online Web site.

The Britannica is an embarrassment of riches. Users often find the wealth and breadth of information daunting and data mining is fast becoming an art form. This is why the Britannica incorporated the Brain Stormer to cope with this predicament. But an informal poll I conducted online shows that few know how to deploy it effectively.

The Britannica also sports Student and Elementary versions of its venerable flagship product, replete with a Homework Helpdesk - but it is far better geared to tackle the information needs of adults and, even more so, professionals. It provides unequalled coverage of its topics. Ironically, this is precisely why the market positioning of the Britannica's Elementary and Student Encyclopedias is problematic.

The current edition is fully integrated with the Internet. Apart from the updates, it offers additional and timely content and revisions on a dedicated Web site. The digital product includes a staggering number of links (165,808!) to third party content on the Web. The GeoAnalyzer (compares national statistical data and generates charts and graphs) is now Web-based and greatly enhanced.

The Britannica would do well to offer a browser add-on search bar and integrate with new desktop search tools from Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, and others. A seamless experience is in the cards. Users must and will be able to ferret content from all over - their desktop, their encyclopedias, and the Web - using a single, intuitive interface.

Having used the product extensively in the last two weeks and on different platforms and operating systems, I find myself entertaining some minor gripes:

The atlas, dictionary, and thesaurus incorporated in the Britannica are surprisingly outdated. Why not use a more current - and dynamically updated - offering? What about dictionaries for specialty terms (medical or computer glossaries, for instance)?

Despite considerable improvement over the previous edition, the Britannica still consumes (not to say hogs) computer resource far in excess of the official specifications. This makes it it less suitable for installation on older PCs and on many laptops.

The Britannica now uses a new graphic and text renderer. On some systems, the user needs to modify his or her desktop settings to get rid of jagged fonts and blurry photos.

Moreover, despite the hype, relatively few users possess DVD drives (but those who do find the entire reference suite available on one DVD).

But that's it. Don't think twice. Run to the closest retail outlet (or surf to the Britannica's Web site) and purchase the 2006 edition now. It offers excellent value for money (less than $50) and significantly enhances you access to knowledge and wisdom accumulated over centuries all over the world. Sam Vaknin, author of "Malignant Self Love - Narcissism Revisited"1 stars (A sorrow shadow of a glorious past) - I have tested both this encyclopedia and MS Encarta (2006). I have also compared it to the now PUBLIC DOMAIN available 11th edition (Britannica) acclaimed to be the best, as well as Wikipedia.
I would easily say that if you want a 'serious' encyclopedia, don't even bother with it. In terms of content, it is ridiculously epidermical compared to the 11th edition (try some historical figures of say the 16th century, or some -isms and you will see what I mean). On some specialized items, Wikipedia beats all of them. You can even try the Internet and find better information.
This is a general trend, since a 1930's encyclopedia in Greek is better by far compared to recent ones.
If on the other hand you want a reasonably good (but not very good) encyclopedia, fast, easy to use, with a very good atlas and other multimedia material, then go for the MS Encarta 2006. The latter does have errors (e.g. Pluto is quoted as a Roman god, with Hades as the Greek counterpart, which is simply not true), but overall it is far better than Britannica... Sad but true.5 stars (Very useful and informative) - My daughter goes to elementary school so I bought this product because it has multiple libraries for different age groups. I use the Encyclopedia Britannica library and she uses the elementary library. There is also a Student library. Each library has age appropriate content.

This is an amazing software with a lot of information. It was very easy to install and the software is fast and responsive. You can either search the encyclopedia or browse different interesting contents. The entire article content was displayed in a scrollable page which was very easy to navigate. I could have multiple articles open in tabs which was very cool.
My daughter loves the "Animal of the day" on her homepage which changes everyday. She has learnt a lot of new things already and I can see this software coming handy in the school year.
I am amazed by the quality of content, very well written materials in a well designed software. There are a lot of other neat features too.

This is the DVD-ROM version. The full version can be purchased by clicking on the "Buy Now" button below for around $49.99 USD.

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Efficient. Search results are organized by relevancy -Encyclopedia Britannica 2006 Ultimate Reference Suite Win-Mac DVD