Rating: 
Summary: High quality and easy to use
Review: The Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary & Thesaurus computer program (on CD) is an excellent value. This program is very useful for anyone who types a lot on his/her computer or is a writer. This software is very easy to use. Once you install the dictionary you can get started right away with searching for words. The interface is intuitive and simple, and there are a huge number of words to search from.There are also many valuable options that come with this program. You can look up homophones and synonyms. If you have a jumbled word like "DOIMSW" you can quickly use the option for "Jumble" option and find out that the word is "WISDOM" (or if you have letters like "RETINAS" you'll find numerous words). You can search for words that rhyme with each other. You can even search for words from specific dates (like 1777). If you don't know the exact spelling of the word there's a few neat options that you can learn to find words (involving special characters like *,&,^,!). This dictionary also is very convenient because you don't need the CD to run the dictionary. You can just install it and then quickly use the program anytime. If you want to hear pronunciations, however, you need to use the CD unless you install all the sound. The pronunciation guide is very useful and the sound is realistic. The dictionary provides both entertainment and education for me. I find myself just playing around with the program, typing in random letters to see if there's a jumble, looking up synonyms, listening to the pronunciations for vulgar words, and just browsing the vast number of entries. I'm confident that buying this dictionary is a wise investment.
Rating: 
Summary: Easier than grabbing a heavy hardback
Review: The MW Medical Desk Dictionary's best feature is that it's convenient. It offers you the option to install macros that put an icon on your Word or WordPerfect toolbar that will launch the dictionary. Highlight a word in your document, click the icon, and it will look it up. Type the beginning letters of a word in its search feature, and it will attempt to match what you type with a word in its dictionary. Where it fails is when you don't want that word and it's automatically filled the search box with some other word, so you have to delete the letters that don't apply. Sure, it's easier than grabbing a heavy hardback, and better than the outdated dictionary I had, but its automatic look-up ability needs serious work. I also wish it was a spell-checker plugin rather than an add-on dictionary; you can't tell Word (or any other Office application) that it's a dictionary you're adding in because there is no *.dic file for the program to find to add in. Still, for the money, this is a very good program if what you want is a dictionary and not a spellchecker.
Rating: 
Summary: Doesn't work with Hyper Threading Dell
Review: this dictionary and thesaurus are very important for a pro writer and I just can not get it to load on my new Dell XPS with Hyper Threading Pentium 4. Called Dell. No help... they don't know how to fix as HT tech is so new. Any clues? Right now I have my old system networked to run just Webster's, but still have to cross the room to look at it and can't cut and paste since the big Dell doesn't recognize WNW. Yiiikes. I know this isn't a newslist, but if anyone has a HT Pentium 4 and got it working on yours, please contact me at saynitso@lunchezine.com. Thanks in advance for suggestions. It is the best dictionary and thesaurus on the market as far as I can tell... if you can get it to work.
Rating:
Summary: Tambien es en ingles /espanol
Review: This is a very fine bilingual encyclopedia of the Spanish and English languages. It installs within seconds and has extremely complex search capabilities in either language. Whatever Amazon is charging for it - multiply by five and you will have a glimpse of the value of this CD-ROM. Leave it in RAM. Read a Spanish language newspaper over the net. Watch Univision on cable TV. Pick words off the radio. If you are using this dictionary to learn Spanish, you will ALSO have to have a verb book - it doesn't teach grammar, but it DOES teach modismos (idiomatic expressions). It DOES know a noun from a verb from an adverb from an adjective. This is an indispensable tool. Load it onto your laptop and take it to Mexico City or Miami or Venezuela. Share with the people you meet there.
Rating: 
Summary: A very nice product; but doesn't integrate with browsers.
Review: This is undoubtedly the best dictionary & thesaurus available today. The features that impressed me the most are: 1: You don't have to leave the CD in the drive to use the 'pronounciation' feature. You can optionally install the sound files on your hard disk. (Approx. 532 MB) 2: Multiple pronounciations invoked where appropriate. 3: Installs without a glitch and integrates with MS Word. 4: Has a lot of nice features like 'Spelling Help'. I hope the 12th Edition will integrate with email browsers, not just with MS Word. Also, I would have preferred the thesaurus invoked automatically in an additional pane instead of switching between dictionary and thesaurus.
Rating:
Summary: A very nice product; but doesn't integrate with browsers.
Review: This is undoubtedly the best dictionary & thesaurus available today. The features that impressed me the most are: 1: You don't have to leave the CD in the drive to use the 'pronounciation' feature. You can optionally install the sound files on your hard disk. (Approx. 532 MB) 2: Multiple pronounciations invoked where appropriate. 3: Installs without a glitch and integrates with MS Word. 4: Has a lot of nice features like 'Spelling Help'. I hope the 12th Edition will integrate with email browsers, not just with MS Word. Also, I would have preferred the thesaurus invoked automatically in an additional pane instead of switching between dictionary and thesaurus.
Rating:
Summary: Great software, dictionary, pronuciation, lousy thesaurus
Review: This loaded easily and quickly into my i book. The collegiate dictionary is excellent and the pronunciations are helpful and standard pronunciations. The search functions are great. My complaint: What is with the thesaurus? This has to be one of the thinnest, most incomplete thesauri on the market! Many, many words that are unusual but have that special zing and pop you want from a thesaurus are missing. This thesaurus will not improve your writing a great deal. It seems as if words are only included if they are in very common usage today. Who needs a thesaurus if it will only mirror the blandness that surrounds us? MW also sticks to words that are exact synonyms as if thesaurus users do not like to wander into subtle shades of meaning. I consider the MW thesaurus a waste of money. Go with Rodale's synonym finder or an old edition of Roget (the new one is a mess). You will find plenty of off beat words there.
Rating:
Summary: Voice helps me a lot!
Review: Three is no other dictionary that I can rely on more than Merriam Webster dictionary. This new edition, 11th, got all updated words used for internet and new high tech terms with accurate vocal sound. I saw some other dictionary with sound, but this dictionary got most accurate sound that I can trust. For some words that have two sounds, it pronounces both of them.
I can not work without this dictionary.
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