Rating: 
Summary: Good, but better Encarta Reference Library
Review: It is better to buy Encarta Reference Library, because it has more text and features (Atlas and so on). I have reviewed it if you want extra information. The system requirements are about the same.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Deal
Review: Just bought my copy at [a local store] in Houston for [$$$] and will get a [$$$] rebate. Imagine 2.65 gb of info for [$$$]!!!
Carries fewer articles and sounds than 2003 Encarta DVD but has several other features.
They finally fixed the researcher mode so that a project can be loaded with Encarta dvd and also the web info. The last three years I would receive a run time error.
The interface is more XP looking and they should look to building up much more info. The platform exists and is the best for this purpose. Perhaps too much info would slow the response time. A great product and a great value!!!!!
Rating:
Summary: My Teen Loves It As Much As I Do!
Review: My 10th grader wanted an update on our Encarta 2000 and I noticed that the Encarta Deluxe Edition 2004 was available from Amazon for under $20 after rebates. What a deal! This is a great reference source featuring panoramic location photos, instant bar graph country comparisons and loads of historical information. It sure beats paying hundreds of dollars for a set of dust collecting book encyclopedias and it is a heck of a lot quicker than spending hours surfing the net for basic research and background information. Microsoft uses the Collier encyclopedia for much of the information. Encarta also has a search engine feature which accesses the internet for the most current information on a topic. Old newspaper articles and other sources are also available when relevant. All and all, this is a solid product and a great value worthy of your consideration.
Rating: 
Summary: No QuickDefine
Review: The 2000 Reference Suite includes a QuickDefine feature that allows the ability to highlight a word in a webpage, right click and choose QuickDefine to get an instant definition window. Verbal pronunciation is only available when the CD is in the drive. I purchased the 2004 version hoping that QuickDefine would include pronunciations on the hard drive. I found that QuickDefine is no longer a feature. In contrast, Ecarta 2004 does contain a dictionary that can reside as an icon in the system tray. Definitions are available by clicking the icon and copy/pasting a word into the window. Verbal pronunciation is available without the need to insert a CD if you choose to install the entire 5 CDs to the hard drive.
Rating:
Summary: Pay attention to what you purchase
Review: There is no doubt that the [$] price is a good incentive to give Encarta Deluxe 2004 a try. Before you do spend a bit of time examining all the available encyclopedias and most important put time into figuring who will be the primary user. If research and detail is required consider spending a few dollars more and getting the Encarta 2004 Reference Library or consider Encyclopedia Britanica; possibly even World Book.I mention this because Encarta does a reasonable job as an encyclopedia but as others have discussed, is brief to the point of being unsatisfying. Where Encarta makes up for the lack of detailed text is in it's multimedia content and interface. Microsoft has done a fine job of making a Encyclopedia for the casual user and has outdone itself in areas like interactive tours. The good side of brevity is the way Encarta holds one's interest without being terribly challenging. For middle school students Encarta Deluxe 2004 is a good choice as it makes learning fun. It's negative side is important as well. Compared to Encyclopedia Britanica the articles are too brief and simply lacking for adult content. Users from High School Juniors through University students will need more details not to be found in Encarta or it's additonal web content. The links, however, are substantial and useful to those of all age and learning styles. In conclusion, Encarta Deluxe 2004 is fun to browse and is engaging in a way Britanica is not. If you are a visually oriented user that doesn't need adult level discourse or the sometimes stuffy writing style found in Britanica. if you enjoy tooling around 2D and 3D areas of importance then Encarta is your encyclopedia.
Rating:
Summary: Encarta Reference Library 2004: An Encyclopedia Masterpiece
Review: This is the one edition that my father will give me, Amazon.com staff. This powerful encyclopedia has it all: Encyclopedia and atlas on one product. Previously, if you wanted to see all countries, you had to buy the atlas separately. But, from 2000 on, Atlas and Encyclopedia have bundled up since the 2000 edition. This new bundle is what we actually know as Encarta Reference Library, and this new edition incorporates 20 Discovery Channel videos, a feature that wasn't found in prevous editions.
Moreover, I want to congratulate the people at Microsoft Corporation for creating this new version of an exciting product.
And, Mr. Gates, you can include this review on the side of the 2006 edition packaging.
Thank you for reading,
Marcelo Mauricio
Rating:
Summary: Buy it. Buy it now.
Review: Where to start.. That's a tough question to ask me as i try to figure what feature i should praise first.. The Dictionary/Thesaurus/Foreign Language Translator-(will help me greatly hehe)
*The most comprehensive and extensive dictionary i've ever seen. (that's saying A LOT)
*EVERY word has an AUDIBLE pronunciation that you can hear.
*Translate any word in the dictionary to Spanish, French, German, and Italian (and vice verse) (no audio on foriegn languages)
*Start typing what you believe the spelling of the word to be, and see a list of possibilities you might be thinking of. The Atlas
*Find major highways in any part of the world.
*Find any city in the world, click on it, get it's content page which includes all referrences to said city
*Pull up the Dynamic Sensor and watch the lat/long time zone, and TIME OF DAY go by
*Choose between the standard globe, the tectonic plate globe, the Religious Influence globe, the political influence globe, "Earth by Day" and "Earth at Night" globes are INCREDIBLE! A GLOBE OF THE MOON equally as stunning. those are just a few of the globe options (dictionary/globe alone are worth far more than what they charge for this program) Who says you want to look at a recent map? Check out the Historical Map section. Theres one of the Ancient Isrealites during the time of King David.
THE Graphical User Interface
*A three year old could manage easily
*An Adult would truly appreciate the simplicity of the GUI, not to mention how geniously it is all tied together.
*I sincerely appreciate the option of a full download. NO CD SWAPPING!
*Scroll mouse compatable Photos and Maps and Sounds
*Wow. I can't say it any other way. I didn't know the beating of Rodney King lasted that long...
*They got Colin Powell on video giving a series of dissertations in regards to several aspects of the integration of the white and black person in earlier America. ("earlier" was not as long ago as you may like)
*They got Kofi Annan (prime minister of the UNITED NATIONS) to give a short talk on the situation of africa.
*Countless still photos depicting history
*About 20 fully panoramic scenes (amazing) THE TIMELINE!!!!
My personal favorite. The highly intuative layout is cunningly simple, the amount of at a glance world history really a sight to see. Those are among my favorites, but i must not leave out the myriad of other features like the free updates, world statistics, the games, the ancient landmark tours you can take in full 3-d, the homework and research guides, liturature guides (articles on peices of literature), famous quotes that rivals the amount of words from their dictionary.. And i haven't even gotten to the encyclopedia part of it!
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