Rating: 
Summary: Most Scholarly and Complete Set Available
Review: Everyone knows that Britannica was the first publisher of encyclopedias, and those of us old enough to have had homes before the Online revolution had at least one call by Britannica door-to-door sales associates. The last visit I had, several years ago, was by a young college student who was selling a revolutionary product. You could buy the entire Britannica set of encyclopedias on CD-ROM for only ($$$) (or thereabout). At the same time, Compton's offered a CD-ROM for a fraction of that cost. I opted for Comptons, not because it was superior, but because it was (inexpensive). No more!The new Deluxe Britannica comes with all the original content, plus an Atlas, and two encylopedia sets for younger readers. And, needless to say, the price has come down considerably. Today, few cannot afford to have Britannica on their computers. Encarta users (like myself) will find Britannica to have a very different format. It is certainly less eye catching and lacks many of Microsoft's multimedia features. However, what it lacks in snazz, it makes up for in content. I like both Encarta and Britannica because of these differences, and I will continue to use both. As far as information is concerned, Britannica is the grand-daddy of encyclopedias. The content is identical to the company's online version, but for users concerned about downtime and slow downloads, the DVD is a life saver. Also, the offline version allows parents of young children to access the content without supervision and without installing Internet filters. Finally, the DVD has the advantage of storing all the content on one disk. On the other hand, the CD-ROM version allows users with large hard drives to install the content directly into their computers. Since the content is the same, users must decide which they prefer.
Rating: 
Summary: Mediocre Interface/ Best content
Review: First of all no encyclopedia in the universe that I am aware of beats the Britannica in terms of content. However,the thrill of knowledge ends with the electronic version of the Brittanica due to the fact that even though the information is all there, the way it's presented to the user makes it a gruesome adventure. For example, type in a word or phrase and the amount of articles that you may get a hit is astounding. The only problem is that you can only view them in chunks of 15 and the article that you may be interested could be article 5487 in the list. There is no way to get to the middle or end of the hit list without pressing next every single time. Another worthless feature is the Browse by Letter function which starts from the beginning of the letter and it goes down the list in alphabetical order. Again it presents articles in chunks of 15.Imagine if you are browsing the letter "F" and "Flora" might be an article that may interest you,does anybody realize how many times you have to hit the NEXT button. I could go on but I will stop right here, I give the content 4 stars and the user interface 1 star.
Rating:
Summary: Did I get a different version?
Review: I don't often write reviews, but I strongly disagree with a number of the negative reviews that have been posted regarding this product. CONTENT (the most important part): Frankly this product is untouchable by anything on the market for both the amount of content and the editorial quality. - It contains three (3) complete encyclopedias each for a different age level. Elementary, Student and the full Encyclopedia Britannica. - It contains both the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary / Thesaurus and the age appropriate Student Dictionary and Thesaurus. - It contains 3 age appropriate atlases (although it is more like a country browse). - It contains 3 age appropriate timelines
- It has an image and multimedia searching ability - It links to additional on-line content including Web sites and Magazine articles (again age appropriate depending on the 'library' you choose. INTERFACE: Britannica has gone in a different direction then the other CD/DVD encyclopedias and it is one that is quite useful and has tremendous potential. - There are three libraries that you can work from each targeted to a specific age group. Every feature in the product except for the Knowledge Navigator (not sure why not) is available in each library. Material from the three libraries can be mixed and matched in a kind of work area. This includes pictures, media, article, images, and so on. - The interface is all on a single page. There is no need to flip back and forth through a lot of confusing screens. This makes the product easy to navigate and use. Granted not all the 'fluff' (animated icons, big splash screen, etc.) that you see in other projects is here - You can open, view, read and organize multiple pieces of content at the same time. I believe this is the first encyclopedia that allows this and it is a feature I use a great deal. You can open a series of picture, article, and other related material and organize them within you work area. You can even save the work area to pick up where you left off. Within the work area you can automatically cascade the windows, you can minimize them (which shows a clever mini-view or the large window), etc. - The product does maximize the space on higher resolutions screen, and although it works fine in an 800x600 view it is better in 1024x768 or higher where you have more space to open windows and organize your content. - The product still contains some classic feature from the 2002 version like the Research Organizer that allows you to generate reports, etc. and the Knowledge Navigator which allows you to visually browse through the Encyclopedia Britannica articles and draws some interesting connections.. Although there are still improvements that can be made, and other reviewers point some of those out, this is already an incredible value and a 5 star product. I hope that Britannica will stick with this direction and continue to improve and add some of the important features like Bolding, Find text, etc. that are lacking this year as well as continuing to improve the load times, memory usage, etc. I am very happy with my 2003 version and am looking forward to seeing the 2004 version. If you like a lot flash and fluff without much substance or utility then stick with Encarta, World Book or Grolier's. If you want reliable and complete content, a no-nonsense user-friendly interface, and a genuinely usable and useful tool then Britannica's Ultimate Reference Suite is for you - and your whole family.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing - Light Years from becoming Worthy of Purchase
Review: I have owned and used the Printed EB for years and have enjoyed, learned from and liked it. I also installed the 2003 Encarta recently, and love it (Great Product). So I was excited when EB 2003 DVD came out and ordered it at once. What a Major Disappointment. Some things don't work at all eg:
Under Interactive Time Lines: Data files are not found e.g. (Daily Life) - ( EBDailyLife.txt) not found! (Music) - (EBMusic.txt) not found! (Have sent two messages to EB, but no answer or help from them!)
Other major drawbacks:
(Under Annoying)- 1. Mouse wheel does not work for scrolling when viewing Articles. 2. No forward arrow to move to next item in the articles List of Contents. 3. Back & Forward Buttons (on Keyboard) don't work either. 4. Each article opening in its own and same fixed size window forces you to have to a) Close the previous window (or you end up with dozens of open windows)and b)enlarge the new window. In addition, Contents in the electronic version are different from Printed Encyclopedia, e.g. take article (selected at random) on Zeolites: The two versions are a world apart.
Go for Encarta 2003 DVD instead.
Rating:
Summary: Very good value.
Review: I recently received Encyclopedia Britannica 2003 Ultimate Reference Suite on dvd. I read all the problems people had with it, but decided to purchase it anyway because of the content. I had no problem downloading it to my hard drive and the user interface is straight forward. I don't know why people are having so much problems with the software. It may be because they are using Windows instead of OS X. Although it is easier to look an article up in the book version of the encyclopedia, it is a lot more economical to buy it on dvd. You receive 3 volumes of encyclopedias, a dictionary, a thesaurus, atlases, quick time movies and much more ..., plus you can download updates. You can't do that with the print version.
Rating:
Summary: World Book 2003 beats this hands down
Review: I recently recieved this "product" and all I have to say is for the amount of cabbage they want, you could spend your money elsewhere. Even Encarta or World Book has this thing beat in feature parity and ease of use. I was truly disheartened after installing this and immediately getting an error message and program quit. I installed it on a second computer, same configuration, and it finally ran. With that said, this is a java-based application that is slow, boring, and ultimately a big downer. I have since returned it and purchased World Book (from their site, as Amazon apparently doesn't carry the Macintosh Jaguar edition). What a difference an application makes! Not only is World Book interactive, easy to use, but it's full of multimedia and tons of sights and sounds. A lookup of the same topic produced three movies, four images, and six related articles. The same lookup on Britannica produced boring chapter after chapter, all formatted the same, with no pics, sounds, or movies. Yech. Save yourself a headache and get World Book. You'll be happy you did. If you need the Mac version, get it from World Book's website.
Rating:
Summary: Extremely Poor Software with Best Text Content
Review: I upgraded from the EB2002 DVD because it uses 30% of my Win98(1) GDI and USER resources. I never kept 2002 loaded in memory. My hardware is AMD T-Bird 1.4 GHz, 512 MB, and "Special Edition" 8 MB 7200 RPM Western Digital 100 & 120 GB drives. BEWARE: Tech support via phone is normally NOT free. If you have any problems with their software products, you may be forced to call their 900 number. There is an automatic...fee per incident charged to your phone bill. With EB2003, I have the same complaints as others.... Although I have some of the fastest drives available, EB2003 (DVD full install) takes 14 seconds to access the Britannica interface and it continues reading the drive for another 20 seconds. EB2003 uses a massive 118 MB's of hardware memory, far more than any other application (app) I have. Yet, EB2003 uses only 2% GDI and USER Win98(1) resources and I am therefore able to keep it loaded in memory. Compared to 2002, the 2003 interface is very poor. You cannot double-click on an article term for look up. The search boxes do not have a clear button for a new search. Search terms are not highlighted in the article text and there is no find text feature. The search engine seems to be worse than EB2002. It does not have intelligent results sorting. With a multiple term such as "President Andrew Jackson", you must click the small results screen several times for the correct article. For article full screen, the border line creeps too slowly from right to left. Because EB2003 is a Java app, Microsoft mouse scroll wheels will not work. The Atlas is nothing more than a collection of slides and I am constantly fighting for full screen views. EB2003 does not remember previous settings. For "medium" font view, it must be set every start. The quite nonfunctional "Welcome" screen must also be removed every start. For personal saved bookmarks, you must load them every start. I also have the Microsoft 1999 Encarta Reference Suite. While Encarta content might not be as complete, the software is far more advanced. The included Encarta 1999 Virtual Globe is better than anything EB will ever produce. You can zoom in/out, turn a globe to quickly find a country, do searches, compare 2 different country data, and use a tool to find exact distances. It even has a global flight simulator which is fairly cool. Because of current events in the world, I use the 1999 Encarta Bookshelf and Virtual Globe everyday. I followed the progress of the USA and British forces in the Iraq War using the 1999 Virtual Globe. When I purchased EB2002, I knew the software would be below Microsoft's quality but the content would be better. With EB2003, the software is so poor Britannica should either fire its programming subcontractor or think about merging with Microsoft. Even a beginner programmer knows you never write an app with Java(!). You always write apps with C++ because it is more efficient and faster. I will probably keep EB2003 because I only paid the upgrade price. I will also upgrade to the Encarta 2003 DVD. I suspect the Encarta content now rivals EB's. If so, this may be the last time I purchase an EB. Daniel Martinez
Rating:
Summary: Extremely Poor Software with Best Text Content
Review: I upgraded from the EB2002 DVD because it uses 30% of my Win98(1) GDI and USER resources. I never kept 2002 loaded in memory. My hardware is AMD T-Bird 1.4 GHz, 512 MB, and "Special Edition" 8 MB 7200 RPM Western Digital 100 & 120 GB drives. BEWARE: Tech support via phone is normally NOT free. If you have any problems with their software products, you may be forced to call their 900 number. There is an automatic...fee per incident charged to your phone bill. With EB2003, I have the same complaints as others.... Although I have some of the fastest drives available, EB2003 (DVD full install) takes 14 seconds to access the Britannica interface and it continues reading the drive for another 20 seconds. EB2003 uses a massive 118 MB's of hardware memory, far more than any other application (app) I have. Yet, EB2003 uses only 2% GDI and USER Win98(1) resources and I am therefore able to keep it loaded in memory. Compared to 2002, the 2003 interface is very poor. You cannot double-click on an article term for look up. The search boxes do not have a clear button for a new search. Search terms are not highlighted in the article text and there is no find text feature. The search engine seems to be worse than EB2002. It does not have intelligent results sorting. With a multiple term such as "President Andrew Jackson", you must click the small results screen several times for the correct article. For article full screen, the border line creeps too slowly from right to left. Because EB2003 is a Java app, Microsoft mouse scroll wheels will not work. The Atlas is nothing more than a collection of slides and I am constantly fighting for full screen views. EB2003 does not remember previous settings. For "medium" font view, it must be set every start. The quite nonfunctional "Welcome" screen must also be removed every start. For personal saved bookmarks, you must load them every start. I also have the Microsoft 1999 Encarta Reference Suite. While Encarta content might not be as complete, the software is far more advanced. The included Encarta 1999 Virtual Globe is better than anything EB will ever produce. You can zoom in/out, turn a globe to quickly find a country, do searches, compare 2 different country data, and use a tool to find exact distances. It even has a global flight simulator which is fairly cool. Because of current events in the world, I use the 1999 Encarta Bookshelf and Virtual Globe everyday. I followed the progress of the USA and British forces in the Iraq War using the 1999 Virtual Globe. When I purchased EB2002, I knew the software would be below Microsoft's quality but the content would be better. With EB2003, the software is so poor Britannica should either fire its programming subcontractor or think about merging with Microsoft. Even a beginner programmer knows you never write an app with Java(!). You always write apps with C++ because it is more efficient and faster. I will probably keep EB2003 because I only paid the upgrade price. I will also upgrade to the Encarta 2003 DVD. I suspect the Encarta content now rivals EB's. If so, this may be the last time I purchase an EB. Daniel Martinez
Rating:
Summary: Good text, very bad software
Review: I've bought both ENCARTA and BRITANNICA for years. This is my opinion:
TEXT: The Britannica is a superb encyclopaedia in text since 1768. If only its electronic version were worthy of it! Text in the electronic version is different from Printed Encyclopaedia (large articles have been shortened). Britannica claims that it has more articles than Encarta, but this is a joke: articles like "Spain" are only one with a lot of subdivisions in Encarta, while in Britannica subdivisions are considered articles, and you must "jump" from one subdivision to other.
In some areas Encarta is better than Britannica. For example consider "controversial events in modern history" such us "My Lai Massacre": In Encarta one large article and a lot of mentions in others; Britannica does not even know the name.
In theory, you can update Britannica over the Internet free for a year quarterly (4 times), but this does not work. Encarta is updated free EVERY WEEK) with new articles and additions to the old ones. The new articles and additions are included in the next version of Encarta, but this is not true for Britannica. For instance: "Bilbao, Spain": Britannica does not mention the Guggenheim Museum, which opened in 1997, and the population is !!estimated!! of 1982. The same article in Encarta: similar text, 3 photos, 1 map, related articles, sidebar, dynamic timelines and 4 internet pages, plus one specific article "Bilbao Guggenheim Museum". I think Britannica updates its contents very slow, whereas Encarta is completely alive.
MULTIMEDIA: They say that "serious" or "adult" readers do not care about "pictures"; that multimedia is only for kids. I do not agree, because I think that, sometimes, "A picture is worth a thousand words". Works of art, anatomy, maps, diagrams ... Encarta devastates Britannica with a lot of photos, paintings, drawings, maps, animations, interactivities, videos, music and sounds, pictures, literature sidebars, new translation dictionaries (not very good though), atlas, 2-D and 3-D virtual tours, timeline, games ... It's not only the quantity and quality. It is the easy access you have to all the multimedia, and that text and multimedia are fully integrated. Britannica's Atlas is a joke and statistics do not exist or I have not found them. Encarta's has a great detail: 1 cm/ 4 km all over the world (though you find some mistakes) and hundreds of statistical maps.
INTERFACE AND SOFTWARE: This is the worst side of Britannica. In Encarta you only have to type a phrase, a word or the beginning of a word to see all the articles and multimedia that contain it. If you have typed the name of a small village, you see it in the Atlas without clicking again. If Encarta does not find anything, it gives you alternative spellings and you find what you were looking for. To go "jumping" from article to article is very easy and quick, because you have a lot of links and the "Related Articles" section. If you need to copy text or pictures, the integration with Microsoft WORD is perfect. If you don't understand a word, you can double-click it and the dictionary appears in a window.
Navigating with Britannica is different. You get crazy. I will only give an example: if you do not know the exact and correct spelling of a name or word, it does not help you with alternative or similar spellings. The dictionary does not permit double-clicking of words in the text of articles for their definitions. Once an article is displayed you cannot search for a word within the article. This is extremely annoying: you have to perform this task yourself. One "pro" for Britannica: they say it works with Macintosh computers.
This is my piece of advice: If you can afford it, buy both. If not... read again this review.
Rating:
Summary: Worse than previous versions
Review: I've owned the 1999, 2001, and 2003 versions of the EB DVD. The 2001 was by far the best. While the content is wonderful in all three versions, only the 2001 edition provided any sort of ease of use. The 1999 version barely functioned, and the 2003 is a major step backward. As others have noted, it runs much slower, the scolling mouse function doesn't work, and the dictionary and article interfaces have been annoyingly combined. Also, the Atlas maps have not been greatly improved, which would have been really nice. The only major improvement in the 2003 EB-DVD is the pronunciation guide included in the dictionary. The superfluous student editions included on the DVD are worthless. My hope is that Britannica will build on strength and focus on improving content in subsequent versions.
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