Rating: 
Summary: Merriam-Webster's Collegiate & Thesaurus
Review: An excellent doctoral professor recommended Merriam-Webster because it's the standard for APA and other professional associations. Most importantly, Merriam-Webster provides linguistically correct definitions as opposed to politically correct definitions like some of the other more conservative dictionaries.
Rating: 
Summary: A necessity to college living
Review: As a college student, I am required to read many books and accomplish quite a few difficult assignments. This software allows quick and easy access to understanding words that I often come accross that I am not always certain of the meanings. I am too rushed for time to stop and look up words such as "purfle" and "obdurate", but can easily and quickly look them up with this software. I am around many different computers on and off campus but most of them do not have this software available. I consider myself lucky to have access to the Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary & Thesaurus on my home computer.
Rating: 
Summary: Limited usage
Review: Don't wast your money on this spell checker. You will get some new words added to your existing checker (you could add them yourself)It's not really a spell checker, it is an add on to the spell checker you already have.
Rating:
Summary: good word pronounciation
Review: I already owned the Microsoft Encarta World English Dictionary when I bought Merriam-Webster because I wanted the software to pronounce every word, and Encarta doesn't.Merriam-Webster's main good point:
pronouces every single entry, including various forms of each word, such as "beauty", "beautiful" plus you can copy the whole disc into your computer, so you don't have to put in the CD every time you look stuff up. Can't do with Microsoft. Other than that, it isn't a very good computer dictionary. It looks like somebody just scanned the information into the computer. The dictionary has limited space, that's why stuff is crammed in the there, but the computer should read with more paragraph separations which costs no more memory. There are few examples. I also don't like the fact that you have to clear each entry before you can look up the next word, which I don't have to do with Microsoft's. It is a usable dictionary and thesarus, and has plenty of entries. I think it is particular worth it for someone learning English as a foreign language.
Rating: 
Summary: Dictionary and Windows NT
Review: I feel slightly cheated that I can go online (...)and use a better version of the dictionary for free (it even pronounces the words. I thought this software had this feature, but I have yet to see it work.) Chief complaints:
1. The software is unstable on both windows NT and Windows 98 machines when I use it through Microsoft Word (it crashes 4 out of 10 tries). This issue is serious enough that a patch should be made available for free. 2. The software treats the dicitonary and thesaurus as two seperate entities. Why? This isn't a book, its a computer. Make it simple without creating unnecessary hoops for the user to jump through. It gets when using a laptop without a mouse. 3. Not all words have entries in the thesaurus, which is understandable. But sometimes you think you are in dictionary mode when you are in thesaurus mode. So the program comes back, "no entries found." (another arguement why the dictionary and thesaurus should be together.) Bottom line--the software lack polish. But it beats lugging a dictionary/thesaurus around.
Rating:
Summary: Work Adequately on the Mac, Could be Improved
Review: I'm typing this on a Powerbook G4 running Mac OS X 10.3, according to the top utility, the Merriam-Webster application is taking between 7% and 12% of the CPU time while idling in the background. If every application I owned did this, I would be in trouble. Thankfully, most commercial applications are better written.
Not that I don't appreciate the product for what it does. It is incredibly useful for looking up words, solving crossword puzzles and the like. I know I use it frequently and think it a bargain.
However, as a Mac coder, I find its interface and performance well below professional standards. It is easily the ugliest application I use on a daily basis with its mixture of faux 3D elements and Mac native widgets, it's garish color scheme, blocky icons and its tendency to suck down cycles as if its programmers had never heard of a Carbon Event.
Rating:
Summary: Necessary Tool
Review: Since I updated from Word 95 to 98 in October, 2000, I have had a great deal of difficulty accessing a usable list from the built-in Thesaurus; plus I discovered that the dictionary is not nearly as complete and easy to use as in the previous version of Word. I am a writer, and though I own twenty or so dictionaries in hard back, I required a tool that was easier to carry with me on the road than my back breaking load of books. I needed access to the many varieties of words and their second or third meaning, as well as other words with similar meanings. Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary & Thesaurus program link directly into Word; so, with the click of the button I have a thorough and user-friendly link to my Word World. I also am an Editor. It is imperative that I know what the meaning is of a word that one of my client uses, so if it is unfamiliar or not obvious, I now have the means to quickly review alternative definitions and edit a work with the writer's choice in mind. This is an excellent program from a renown source. The only aspect that bothers me is that when I click on a word in my document, the program inserts it again and adds a paragraph break; this means that once I check it I then have to make the correction manually by both retyping the misspelled word and deleting the second entry and line break. This caused me to give it a 4 star rather than 5 rating.
Rating:
Summary: Voice helps me a lot!
Review: The Amazon Features: recommended this dictionary for age 9 to adult and this should have been a big clue. Generally 9 year olds and adults aren't looking for the same things in a product of this type. This is a cute program but all of it is freely available on the Web. My two biggest disappointments were the brief simplistic definitions and that it lacks cross-referencing or hyper-linking within a definition, -- yes, you can easily jump to new definitions from words within a given definition, but, for me, this lacks the learning that comes with hyper-linking. My last comment is that as of January 04, the reviews listed under this Medical Dictionary are reviews for other Merriam-Webster products, but not for the Medical Dictionary. Read closely and notice the reference to a thesaurus that the Medical Dictionary does not have.
Rating: 
Summary: great for kids
Review: The Amazon Features: recommended this dictionary for age 9 to adult and this should have been a big clue. Generally 9 year olds and adults aren't looking for the same things in a product of this type. This is a cute program but all of it is freely available on the Web. My two biggest disappointments were the brief simplistic definitions and that it lacks cross-referencing or hyper-linking within a definition, -- yes, you can easily jump to new definitions from words within a given definition, but, for me, this lacks the learning that comes with hyper-linking. My last comment is that as of January 04, the reviews listed under this Medical Dictionary are reviews for other Merriam-Webster products, but not for the Medical Dictionary. Read closely and notice the reference to a thesaurus that the Medical Dictionary does not have.
Rating:
Summary: Merriam-Webster's Spell Checker, Macintosh version
Review: The last System Requirement shown on the box states " . . . a compatible text processing program." It is only when you read the Read Me file on the CD that you find out the only compatible program listed is Microsoft Word for the Mac. The Merriam-Webster web site (www.Merriam-Webster.com) is more specific: "Microsoft Office, including [Microsoft]Word (6.x and 7.x)." The manual installation procedure (there is also an automatic setup) tells you to replace your word processor's dictionary file with this one. This may be a good world processing program. Great, even. But it may also be a dictionary file, limited to use with Microsoft Word. (PC users will find it is used with Microsoft and Lotus products -- see the Mirriam-Webster web site for their list.)
| 
