Encarta Reference Library 2004 DVD [Old Version]

by Microsoft

Product Features

• Combines award-winning encyclopedia resources with research and learning tools
• Comprehensive homework project and research tracking tools
• Collection of videos from Discovery Channel and a new Visual Browser
• Update Encarta tool keeps reference materials both timely and accurate
• A wealth of relevant information on virtually any subject

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B000096L6X
• Item model number: 844-00574
• Date first available at Amazon.com: December 8, 2006
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,812 in Software (See Top 100 in Software)
  • #53 in Software > Children's Software > Reference
  • #95 in Software > Education & Reference > Encyclopedias & Dictionaries
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

Encarta Reference Library 2004 combines the resources of its award-winning encyclopedia with a variety of research and learning tools to deliver a complete reference resource for home or school use. Comprehensive homework tools integrate homework project and research starters with the Dictionary and Thesaurus, Literature Guides, and Chart Maker to create a complete research center to help students achieve greater success in the classroom. New to 2004 is a collection of videos from Discovery Channel and a new Visual Browser providing users with a rich and dynamic way to make learning fun.

• Comprehensive Homework and Research tools with Dictionary and Thesaurus, Literature Guides, Homework Starters, and more. The innovative Encarta learning tools help students learn more and achieve more. Have your children spend less time searching and more time learning--you’ll discover how easy it is when you put these indispensable tools to work.
• New video content from Discovery Channel. Explore a collection of 20 high-quality videos hand selected to enliven the learning process from reading article content to experiencing it.
• Access information that changes with our changing world. Update Encarta keeps the reference materials in Microsoft Encarta Reference Library 2004 both timely and accurate.
• A wealth of relevant information on virtually any subject. With one search, access up-to-date, rich and reliable content and multimedia from Encarta Encyclopedia Deluxe, Encarta World Atlas, Encarta Africana, live Streaming Media, Web links from Web Center, literature guides, translation dictionaries, and many additional resources--all in one place. Adding the new Visual Browser provides an innovative way to discover relationships between articles and multimedia content.

Product Description

The Library That Changes with the Times!Product InformationEncarta Reference Library 2004 combines the resources of itsaward-winning encyclopedia with a variety of research and learning tools todeliver a complete reference resource for home or school use. Comprehensivehomework tools integrate homework project & research starters with theDictionary & Thesaurus Literature Guides and Chart Maker to create acomplete research center to help students achieve greater success in theclassroom. New to 2004 is a collection of videos from Discovery Channel and anew Visual Browser providing users with a rich and dynamic way to make learningfun.Key BenefitsComprehensive Homework and Research tools with Dictionary &Thesaurus Literature Guides Homework Starters and more. The innovative Encartalearning tools help students learn more and achieve more. Have your childrenspend less time searching and more time learning - you'll discover how easy itis when you put these indispensable tools to work.New video content from Discovery Channel. Explore a collection of 20high-quality videos hand selected to enliven the learning process from readingarticle content to experiencing it.Access information that changes with our changing world. Update Encartakeeps the reference materials in Microsoft Encarta Reference Library 2004 bothtimely and accurate.A wealth of relevant information on virtually any subject. With onesearch access up-to-date rich and reliable content and multimedia from EncartaEncyclopedia Deluxe Encarta World Atlas Encarta Africana live StreamingMedia web links from Web Center literature guides translation dictionariesand many additional resources – all in one place. Adding the new VisualBrowser provides an innovative way to discover relationships between articlesand multimedia content. What's New Video content from Discovery Channel A collection of 20 high-quality videos.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Encarta 2004 versus Britannica 2004, May 10, 2004

By 

Billy Budd "an_encyclopedias_addict" (Boston, MA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Encarta Reference Library 2004 DVD [Old Version] (DVD-ROM)

I have bought both Encarta and Britannica for years (EB in printed edition too: 32 volumes, 32.000 sheets). This is my opinion in brief: Encarta is excellent in all aspects, but Britannica's authoritative text (sometimes outdated) makes interesting to buy both.
¿DVD or CD? Both editions are actually the same. You can copy them in your hard disk.
TEXT: Britannica is a superb encyclopedia in text (not in visual aid) since 1768 (you know: an article by Einstein and so on...). Text in electronic version differs from printed encyclopedia (very large articles have been shortened). Britannica claims that it has more items than Encarta, but this is a joke: articles like "Mexico" are only one (with a lot of subdivisions) in Encarta, while in Britannica subdivisions are unconnected, and you must "jump" from one subdivision to another, which is slow and very annoying, especially if you want to copy it in "WORD". Very often, the text is not updated.
In the other hand, Encarta's text is not bad at all. Most articles have the name of their contributors (professions, works...): They are not John Doe. You can find large fragments of literary works, literature guides, a lot of sidebars and thousands of quotations. "Encarta Africana" is included. The Pop-Up (double clicking a word) Dictionary and Thesaurus has sound for correct pronunciation (by the way, it can read aloud, with a robotic and ugly voice, a whole article). The "Translation Dictionaries" to Spanish, French, German and Italian must be improved, because they are minimal. It gives you a lot of "Internet links", even if you are not connected. With Britannica you must be "on-line" and it searches in an EB Web page.
In theory you can update Britannica over the Internet free for a year quarterly (4 times), but this does not work: You can not find new files. Encarta can be updated free EVERY WEEK with new articles and additions or corrections to the old ones (till October 2004). With Encarta updating really works. Technically, is amazing to see the changes in old items.
ATLAS Britannica has not a real atlas; only a worlds map whose maximum detail is the States of USA. Statistics are very poor. Encarta's Atlas is like another encyclopedia, with a great detail (1 cm/ 4 km all over the world) and 20 types of atlas presentations (statistical ones can be counted by dozens). If you look a geographical article (city, river...) you can see in a corner where it is placed and, with only a click, open the atlas. In articles of cities, if you are on-line, you can see in another corner the weather of this place in that moment. If it is a USA place, you can read the latest news.
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, historical maps, diagrams ... Encarta devastates Britannica with a lot of photos, paintings, drawings, charts & tables, animations, interactivities, videos, music and sounds, pictures, 2-D and 3-D virtual tours, 360-degrees views, timeline, games... It is 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 is not really multimedia. It has photos and videos, but they make the program slow and sluggish. They should edit an alternative version with only text, as they did with the first edition in 1995. It worked fast and easy in old computers.
INTERFACE AND PERFORMANCE: This is the worst side of Britannica. With Encarta you only have to type a word or the beginning of a word to see all the articles and multimedia that contain it. If Encarta does not find anything, it gives you automatically alternative spellings. Even if you write the name of a small village lost in any country, you see it in the atlas. If you need to copy text or pictures, the integration with Microsoft WORD is perfect. It has additional ways to find content, including subject or multimedia browsing, "related articles" and the standard A-Z method. The "Research Organizer" is very helpful too. Encarta's TEXT FONT is very clear (Britannica's...) and you can choose 3 sizes.
Navigating with Britannica is different. 2004 edition is better than 2003 one, but still it is disappointing. I will only give you an example: if you do not know the exact and correct spelling of a name or word, it does not help you with similar spellings (unless you open a window and fight with it). As I said before, the program's performance speed is very slow and sluggish, and it must be dramatically improved. To go "back and forward" you do not find any icon and you need to open a "menu".... One "pro" for Britannica: they say it works with Macintosh.
I repeat my modest piece of advice: Encarta is excellent in all aspects, but Britannica's authoritative text (sometimes outdated) make interesting to buy both.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great Format and Quality, September 29, 2008

By 

Doggerdoodle (Oregon) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Encarta Reference Library 2004 DVD [Old Version] (DVD-ROM)

Would have been 5 stars if not for the huge percentage of African and African American material. I have nothing against it, but my interests are more diverse.

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent educational and scientific research program, February 10, 2010

By 

JRH "j5094" (Maryland United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Encarta Reference Library 2004 DVD [Old Version] (DVD-ROM)

When Microsft does something right, they deserve the credit. For reasons unknown to me, MS appears to have discontinued this excellent mapping and encyclopedic reference program in 2009. I am using the 2004 DVD version because it represented an excellent value and the fact that my main interest is in the maps. Uing it as a geography program is much easier and far faster than Google maps, especially if you are interested in quickly finding basic information about a location (latitude, longitude, elevation, climate, cultural, and historical). I use this program as a helper in scientic research, but can easily see its value as a helper in high school and college.