Encyclopaedia Britannica 2003 Ultimate Reference Suite DVD 2003

The content of the EB is unsurpassed. Nothing I say below affects that.

However, as a previous commentator mentions there are some serious faults with the ability to access this content. I list but a few. (I'm running a Full install from the DVD version on a 2.0GHz PC).

1. The "Statistics" tab for country articles is missing, despite being heralded in the instructions - "Statistical information (demography, governmental information, etc) is available with articles about nations." It simply isn't. Such data rarely appears in the body of the article as it is, presumably, supposed to be accessed through the statistics tab. Hundreds of pages of essential national, and comparative, data appears to be missing. Ever wanted to know the population of France, the GDP of the Ukraine, or details of the Australian legislature? You won't find them here. Perhaps I'm missing something, but I don't think so - it seems a simple product.

2. Many links simply do not work. Perhaps I've just been unlucky with my sample...

3. The search functionality is very poor, and much worse than previous versions. It simply does not return the articles you want, yet you know they're in there. Search for "John the Baptist" and the article entitled "John the Baptist" comes in at number 77 or 111 in the results list depending on whether you use quotes or not. This article could easily be found using the alphabetical list of articles, but if you were searching for something that was not an article in its own right, then you may find the search results most unhelpful. Also you cannot search the index and once you've opened an article you cannot search within it.

4. Maps, images and videos are not scalable. At my 1024x768 resolution most only fill less than quarter of the screen. Sometimes much less.

5. A US disctionary / thesaurus is provided, not the Oxford ones of previous editions such as EB2000.

It's an extremely cheap product these days and the content, when/if you find it, is truly excellent. No matter - I still can't really recommend it.

Here you have the full 32-volume Encyclopedia Britannica, indexed and searchable, as well as the Britannica student (for those in secondary school) and elementary (primary) encyclopedias, not to mention world atlases, dictionaries, timelines, and many other features which would be too long to list.

Britannica also comprises a useful tool which allows you to collect information together from different articles and produce a report, which can then be printed.

The one gripe that I have is that Britannica's interface can be rather slow and sluggish at times. On a P3 700MHz with 256MB RAM and Windows 2000, it can sometimes take more than 20 seconds for an article to appear, even if you edit the configuration file as suggested on the Britannica technical support website. I have noticed this problem with the Minimal install option (where only the index is installed and everything is accessed from the DVD), but I am not sure if those who do the Full install (which requires 2.4GB free space) will have the same problem.

Britannica is also a Java program, which means that the scroll wheel on your Microsoft mouse can't be used, but this is a minor gripe. Since Britannica have used Java, they have only had to program one interface for both Windows and Macintosh, and this presumably has helped to keep costs down.

I forgot to mention the free Year in Review book - which is an excellent, in-depth and comprehensive source of information on the world events that took place in 2001.

Before you go ahead and buy Britannica, remember that it is meant as a reference suite, NOT as a learning experience. It will not 'take your hand' and lead you through a subject in the way that Encarta will (try to) do. If it's a learning experience that you want, then go for Encarta - the depth of information may not match Britannica's, but it comes close and would be a better choice as a learning tool for the whole family.