Rating: 
Summary: Picture quality could be better
Review: As usual, the DVD version is better than the CD version because you don't have to swap the disks. However, the picture quality of the photos, especially the 360 tour is the worst this year. Maybe Microsoft wanted to pack to much information into one DVD. Only 10 more video clips than last year and most are in poor resolution. With the development of so much technology applications, I would expect their product better each year.
Still, no homework help or research help for any foreign languages. The research organizer is a helpful tool but takes some time to learn how to use it. By joining the "Encarta Club", a free service online, you get to get access to Encarta's content anywhere in the world as long as you can get online, which is a pretty good feature. However, you must be a MSN passport member.
Rating: 
Summary: More than what you would expect.
Review: Besides the updated and additional articles, the new aspects of the 2004 edition are very good. The interface has changed to better fit Win XP. Also the movies from the Discovery Channel do not run from a small square instead then run off of a viewing window about 640x480 in size and are good quality playback. The other new features are also very useful. Now if they could only modify the new version of Microsoft Office System (version 11.0 2003) coming out later this year to interface with a retail release of Encarta 2004 via the research panel in Office System to supplement the online reference sites that Office 2003 searches or use in the absence of an internet connection.
Rating:
Summary: Bintannica is better
Review: Britannica has more information than Encarta. But Britannica has worse interface than Encarta.If you want better contents, Britannica will be the one. Encarta has very little information on many different subjects.
Rating:
Summary: Reference resource
Review: Encarta allows students to retrieve current information on thousands of topics. The reference tools are great for research papers and slide show presentations. Students can cross-reference the Internet with little effort. As well as, export information into Word and Power Point.
The software delivers reliable content through multimedia, articles, web links, images and maps. And still yet, information is given on sidebars and timelines throughout. Encarta allows students to access up to date reference materials with ease. Microsoft updates the software automatically to keep information accurate.
I feel that Encarta is one resource every secondary level classroom should have and utilize.
Rating:
Summary: Good in a Very Microsoftish Way
Review: Encarta is good. It is very easy to use. It has a web site that a registered user could access. Its world map is far superior than the Encyclopaedia Britannica's. However, its contents are sometimes not that good. For example, I searched "John Rawls," a prominent moral and political philosopher, today. Its first line reads: [ Rawls, John (1921-), American moral and political philosopher, whose major work, A Theory of Justice, has had a profound impact on ethics and political theory since its publication in 1971. ] For God's sake, Rawls died on Nov 22, 2002. It's March 21, 2004 today. And Encarta, which supposedly should be updated weekly, did nothing to correct this mistake.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent overall encylopedia with emphasis on multimedia
Review: Encarta is the top seller in the electronic encyclopedia market. It incorporates more multimedia bells and whistles than any of the others, and probably has the slickest interface and navigation. It has many graphics and streaming video presentations, and another interesting feature is the "virtual tours," which allow you to explore ancient cities such as Babylon as they might have been in their heydey. It has more pictures, photos, and illustrations, as a percentage of total content, than any other major encyclopedia. All this extra graphic content comes at a cost, which is that the average Encarta article isn't as long or detailed as the other sets. However, this doesn't mean they're short; I compared the "Bird" article with those in several of the others, and in Encarta it's 20 pages long, but the World Book's is 40 pages, and the Britannica's amazingly was 112 pages. However, the Encyclopedia Americana's was also 20 pages long. I also checked the biographies for several important people, such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and John Adams, which I assumed would be among the longest and most detailed in the encyclopedia. Washington's was 37 pages, Thomas Jefferson's was 29, John Adams was 15, but Ben Franklin's was only 6, oddly enough. Depending on the age and education and other considerations, one might be better for your needs than another, so I thought I'd offer brief comparisons below, based on my own research. I include the Columbia one for comparison although I don't know if a CD version exists. The print version of Collier's is likely dead at this point, as a result of its acquisition by Microsoft. Encarta--35,000 articles, with 3500 extra articles added from Microsoft's acquisition of Collier's, giving it a more academic quality in the recent edition. 8,000 photos/illustrations (14,000 in deluxe), 115 videos/animations (150 in deluxe), and 2,000 sound clips (2,300 in deluxe). Has the most advanced search capabilities. Searches include all boolean operators plus NEAR (for within 8 words). Can also limit a search by category (Life Science, Geography, Performing Arts, etc.) A unique feature of Encarta is that Microsoft has gone to great lengths to make it attractive to those interested in African and black studies. There is a special Africa Library of Black America, with over 160 articles on black literature, ranging from slave narratives to poetry to non-fiction to novels written by eminent black authors. The Africana articles and the Africa Library entries even appear on the main Articles drop-down menu for easy access--the only specific literature category with such prominence. In addition, the Encarta World Atlas allows you to show African countries by tribe and language, so you can see which tribes and languages occur where geographically. There are hundreds of articles on African tribes and ethnic groups, discussing their history, culture, language, and art, in addition to the usual articles on the countries themselves. Despite the negative comments from a couple of reviewers about the "carousel interface," I found it quite good, and you don't have to use that access method if you don't want to since there are others. Britannica--contains most articles, at 65,000. Also the most technical. Very good science and international content. Science is 40% of total material. However, it's very technical. No matter what Britannica says, it is not appropriate for anyone under 12th grade and probably first year of college. Most of the technical articles are written as though they're intended for practicing professionals in a field who are looking for a quick review of an area. The article on Bird is 112 pages long, and the one on Western Philosophy is 199 pages. However, if you want the ultimate in scholarly substance this is the one for you. Librarians prefer the World Book to the Britannica since it's easier to use. World Book--the best selling encyclopedia in it's print version. 17,000 entries, 28,000 illustrations (over 80% in color--largest number of any set). Consistently rated the best overall set by librarians. A unique feature is that articles are written at the level of the expected reader. The CATS article will be at an easier level than PHYSICS. Encyclopedia Americana--contains 45,000 articles and 24,000 illustrations, which is close to that of the Britannica, but only 15% are in color--the lowest percentage of any adult set. In contrast to the Britannica, entries are more specific and shorter, rather than longer with broader coverage. Librarians say they prefer it to the Britannica. Grolier's Multimedia Encyclopedia--Unfortunately, I don't have an article figure, but there are 10,000 pictures, 1,200 maps, 200 video and animation clips, and 15 hours of sound. CD version includes the complete text of all 21 volumes of Grolier's Academic American encyclopedia. The multimedia version also includes additional articles written especially for this edition. Has powerful search capabilities. You can search the usual way, by title or topic, but you can also search by portion of a word, word proximity, and in what Grolier's calls Complex Mode, you can specify the search by media type--text, picture, map, table, factbox, audio, and video, and by 10 major categories--such as science, technology, geography, and history. COLUMBIA ENCYCLOPEDIA--50,000 entries averaging about 200 words in length. Mainly text based, only has 500 illustrations. The most heavily slanted toward biography, with 45% of the entries being biographical. For example, it contains every name from King James Version of the Bible. The lack of an index is made up for by extensive cross-references within articles. Hope my little comparison review helps. Happy encyclopedia buying and reading!
Rating: 
Summary: Horrible interface - crazy caroussel on your screen!
Review: Encarta's interface has for years been much better than Britannica's, but this year's edition (2004) is different. In one word: horrible! Bill Gates and Co. put not only a very loud welcome noise (you should always turn your speakers off before running Encarta), but also a FAST MOVING CARROUSEL of pictures on your screen. There is no use of it except that you quickly get a SEVERE HEADACHE or VERTIGO looking at it. And there is no way to turn this monstrous thing off! So, if you already have a not too old copy of Encarta on your computer, and you are not a caroussel maniac or a two or three years old child, better SKIP 2004 CAROUSSEL EDITION of Encarta and WAIT FOR A NORMAL EDITION.
Rating:
Summary: Don't buy for the dictionary...
Review: First off, my primary reason for buying this product was the dictionary tool, so my review isn't exactly complete. I've been using the dictionary and thesaurus tools in Reference Suite 2001 extensively since it's introduction - and it is, bar none, the best on the market. You can launch it with Windows at startup and have it run in the taskbar, because it uses little to no resources, and then it's always on demand in a flash. When the interface is open, your cursor is already where it needs to be and you can begin typing instantly. It's also quite smart, in regards to finding matches to a mistyped or misspelled word. If the program doesn't find a direct match to your input, it will display a list of words which it thinks are close, and 9 times out of time your word will be listed. The same great attributes do not hold true for the dictionary and thesaurus tools in Reference Library 2004, however. While the interface does look much the same, that's about the only similarity. 2004 is a resource hog, for one. It's also not very intelligent. If you type a word in wrong, or are simply searching for the spelling of a word, you might as well dig out your paperback, because the paperback is going to be quicker to thumb through. Once one hits enter in 2004, if the program doesn't find an exact match, it automatically displays the first word that matches the first series of characters, beginning from left to right, as oppose to a list of words with simililarities. The real killer for me is in how slow it is to use. For instance, when you open or restore the program to the desktop, you have to navigate to the input box each and every time before you can begin typing. Therefore, if you're doing a lot of writing, and need to switch back and forth between programs, such as a word processor, these 2004 tools are a considerable hinrance, as one has to incessantly leave the keyboard to maneuver the mouse. I bought 2004 thinking it was going to be a simple update, and perhaps even an upgrade, but instead received a semi-useless downgrade...
Rating:
Summary: Horrible interface - crazy caroussel on your screen!
Review: I bought this product for sheer curiousity and self-educational purposes. I was very impressed by the content and multimedia. Something I would have liked for this product to do is pronounce words in spanish, german, french, italian, etc. It states on box that it pronounces words (in the same paragraph it says it translates between english, german, french, and italian, but fails to specify that it only pronounces words in english - a bit misleading). I gave this digital encyclopedia only 4 stars because of it's questionable support. I thought that with microsoft being one of the largest profitable companies in the world that they could provide first rate support for it's customers. I learned that this isn't exactly the case (at least with my experience).
I ran into a problem with downloading the article updates as it would only begin the download and terminate a few minutes into it every time I tried for over a week, and did so at exactly the same spot every time. I contacted their support number (long distance and not toll-free), was on hold for a surprisingly short period of time before being connected to a live customer service rep who took my product ID # and gave me a case # before switching me over to tech support.
Then things got interesting.
For starters I couldn't understand the guy as he was foreign. As I explained the problem to him he started asking me if other things with my internet worked and if I could open web pages. I explained to him that everything does and that I was browsing their FAQ pertaining to this product before I had called. I don't think he understood as he kept questioning me about my internet connnection and I pointed out again I still had FAQ up on desktop. He then basically sugessted that I read through that and see if my problem was in there. I began reading off each of the FAQ's and pointing out at each one that it had nothing to do with my problem. I was getting pretty irritated at this point in the run-a-round as it became obvious that this guy had no clue as to how to help me.
After getting 3/4 of the way down the FAQ page he cuts me off and leads me to deleting my temporary internet pages and cookies, tells me to give it another try after doing that, and then takes my email address down saying he was going to send me more information as to how to deal with problem. And that was the end of that.
I still had the problem and never recieved any emails after 2 days of waiting. I called them back up and was swithced from friendly customer service to another tech support rep. This lady was not only foriegn, but sounded like she was talking through 4" of soundproofing material. Communicating was hopeless. After extensive effort she told me she was going to call right back. She called back later when I wasn't home and explained that my problem was due to the server being down (this is odd as I was able to begin the download) and then emailed me a couple times. I emailed her back, but the problem seems to be corrected for the time being as I was just able to download the updates after having product for nearly week and a half. Updates added 620 updates to articles and etc. I'm glad I got this, but I will be wary of buying future microsoft products that may rely on an internet connection for some of it's features or may require high end technical support.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Product, Questionable Support
Review: I bought this product for sheer curiousity and self-educational purposes. I was very impressed by the content and multimedia. Something I would have liked for this product to do is pronounce words in spanish, german, french, italian, etc. It states on box that it pronounces words (in the same paragraph it says it translates between english, german, french, and italian, but fails to specify that it only pronounces words in english - a bit misleading). I gave this digital encyclopedia only 4 stars because of it's questionable support. I thought that with microsoft being one of the largest profitable companies in the world that they could provide first rate support for it's customers. I learned that this isn't exactly the case (at least with my experience).
I ran into a problem with downloading the article updates as it would only begin the download and terminate a few minutes into it every time I tried for over a week, and did so at exactly the same spot every time. I contacted their support number (long distance and not toll-free), was on hold for a surprisingly short period of time before being connected to a live customer service rep who took my product ID # and gave me a case # before switching me over to tech support.
Then things got interesting.
For starters I couldn't understand the guy as he was foreign. As I explained the problem to him he started asking me if other things with my internet worked and if I could open web pages. I explained to him that everything does and that I was browsing their FAQ pertaining to this product before I had called. I don't think he understood as he kept questioning me about my internet connnection and I pointed out again I still had FAQ up on desktop. He then basically sugessted that I read through that and see if my problem was in there. I began reading off each of the FAQ's and pointing out at each one that it had nothing to do with my problem. I was getting pretty irritated at this point in the run-a-round as it became obvious that this guy had no clue as to how to help me.
After getting 3/4 of the way down the FAQ page he cuts me off and leads me to deleting my temporary internet pages and cookies, tells me to give it another try after doing that, and then takes my email address down saying he was going to send me more information as to how to deal with problem. And that was the end of that.
I still had the problem and never recieved any emails after 2 days of waiting. I called them back up and was swithced from friendly customer service to another tech support rep. This lady was not only foriegn, but sounded like she was talking through 4" of soundproofing material. Communicating was hopeless. After extensive effort she told me she was going to call right back. She called back later when I wasn't home and explained that my problem was due to the server being down (this is odd as I was able to begin the download) and then emailed me a couple times. I emailed her back, but the problem seems to be corrected for the time being as I was just able to download the updates after having product for nearly week and a half. Updates added 620 updates to articles and etc. I'm glad I got this, but I will be wary of buying future microsoft products that may rely on an internet connection for some of it's features or may require high end technical support.
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