Amazon.co.uk Review
Maps may be one of the most pervasive forms of printed matter--we consult them in our homes, cars or train stations many times each week--but they're not necessarily the most supple tools, in print at least. You can't zoom in; all the squinting and searching for place names can be headache-inducing. Enter the
Interactive Atlas of Great Britain on CD-ROM. Created in 1998, this low-priced CD-ROM puts Ordnance Survey maps straight onto your PC, where you can manipulate the size, shape and scale of the map view as necessary.
The legend is easily accessible, and users can turn on and off features--you may want to see antiquities, for example, but not railways. You can use the pin manager to mark locations, and search for locations in national maps (which cover England, Scotland and Wales, but not Ireland) and for streets in town centre plans. Alternatively, you can zoom in by clicking ona part of a map. Printing is easily done from most map views.
Note that this not a route planner--it won't show you how to get from A to B, but it will print a readable, customised map. It's also a useful learning tool for children and adults looking to up their map skills. There are tutorials and activities in map skills, scale and distance, latitude and longitude, compass bearing, grid references, relief and contours. A fun quiz tests your knowledge of the geography of Great Britian. The Data section is packed with statistics on the political, climate, population and physical makeup of Great Britian. Atlases have always made for a good browsing experience, and now it's even better. --Kathleen Keefe
Product Description
Building on the success of previous editions, this general reference atlas features the very latest vector mapping data covering the whole of Great Britain. Rich with multimedia content this new edition includes specially commissioned photographs, fly-throughs, video clips and text on more than 450 places of interest; identifying 150 Millennium projects around Great Britain, including the Millennium Dome.
Data Scales: The whole of Great Britain is covered at 1:250 000 scale, showing such features as contour lines and spot heights. Selected areas can be examined in fine detail with 1:50 000 and 1:25 000 map extracts.
Town and City Centre Plans: 67 street plans from the Ordnance Survey, including London, Birmingham, Bristol, Northampton, Felixstowe, Liverpool, York, Glasgow, Lincoln, Stoke-on-Trent and many more.
Gazetteer: A fully searchable listing of over 55,000 place names and geographical features.
Layers: Personalise your map display. Motorways, main roads, railways, rivers, settlements and many more features can all be independently displayed.
Personalise your maps: Annotate the maps with your own map pins. Add text, photographs and Web links to the pins. Maps can also be bookmarked for easy reference.
Printing: All maps can be printed, either as a basic copy or a high quality print. Maps can also be saved to file as bitmap images.
Map Skills Tutorial: Aimed at increasing your understanding and interpretation of maps, the Map Skills Tutorial features subjects such as Grid References, Direction and Scale and Distance.
Interactive Around Britain Quiz: The Around Britain Quiz challenges you to travel around the country in a race against time to answer questions about each region. Beat the clock and print out your winner's certificate.