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One of the more visible signs of the digital age is Britannica's decision to focus on its CD-ROM and web incarnations rather than publish its famous Encyclopaedia in book form alone.
This Deluxe version contains the entire updated text of the Britannica, with various other multimedia elements, on three CDs. It is important for any multimedia encyclopaedia to be as comprehensive and easy to use as possible, and Britannica Deluxe scores highly on both counts due to its huge array of entries and intuitive mouse-driven interface.
You'll find the intelligent search engine, and the fact that you can ask questions of it in plain English, an improvement on previous editions. We also liked the sheer depth and breadth of the coverage. Any subject you can think of gets a mention, and there are links to specially selected websites for further research.
The Compass and Analyst features are invaluable. They allow you to compare nations on all kinds of levels, together with graphs, maps and tables. And the beautifully presented Timelines and Spotlights, featuring video clips and sounds, will draw you into the subjects they cover.
Our only gripe is that the choice of multimedia topics seems somewhat random. All are interesting, but the 14 subjects seem to have been chosen arbitrarily and then given the lavish multimedia treatment.
General Features
- Entire text of Encyclopaedia Britannica 2000 - over 83,000 articles
- One hour of video and animation
- Over 6,500 photos and illustrations
- Natural language search
- Interactive timelines
- Links to over 125,000 internet sites
- New Oxford Dictionary of English
Contact Britannica 0808 100 7100
See also:
All Education
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