Customer Reviews

Microsoft Encarta Premium 2006 CD/DVD [OLD VERSION]

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Encarta is a great product. If you have never owned it before and are thinking about buying it, do so. It is worth your money. However, if you already own the 2003, 2004, or 2005 version and are thinking of upgrading, forget about it. You will not be impressed.

I judge how easy software is to explore by how many clicks it takes to get somewhere or by how fast I can scroll through a list to get to relevant information. Encarta 2006 is harder and slower to navigate. For example, there used to be a button for the atlas on the header bar over every page. That is now gone and you have to click Tools -> World Atlas to access it. There used to be a scrollable list to change map views (comprehensive, political, physical features, etc.). That has been replaced with large icons that are displayed three at a time. To get to the bottom of the list takes 17 clicks. You can't even hold the mouse button down to get there.

Obviously, the changes were made in an attempt to simplify and refine the layout of the program. I find that they complicate matters instead. Search results are displayed in larger boxes, revealing less information at a time and making it more difficult to scan through them quicly. The only available buttons on the header bar are back, forward, and home. I miss the one-click access to the atlas and the dictionary.

The program runs slower than previous versions and takes up an extraordinarily greater amount of disk space without having added measurably to the content. (It still has 64,000 articles.)

With all that said, I still love Encarta and find it indispensably useful (it just used to be nicer). I first got Encarta when I was starting college, and I used it constantly for almost every course I took. I found the articles to be well-written, interesting, and appropriately in-depth without being too technical or abstract. It fit my needs just perfectly. I remember studying for Humanities and getting completely absorbed in Encarta, clicking link after link as one article would lead to another. It was the same with U.S. History. I would just type in the names of all those people and events I was supposed to know, Encarta would bring them up, and gradually, everything started fitting together.

I felt like I could always count on the subject being included. There was almost never a time when I needed to know about a subject, typed it into Encarta, and came up with no results. I could trust it. Occasionally I felt it showed too much of a liberal political bias, but I forgive it, because Encarta stimulated my interest in learning in a big way.

The pictures and interactivities are numerous and engaging. The atlas is FUN to explore. You spin the world around, zoom in to a surprisingly detailed level (I saw my street), drag to a different spot on the map, and repeat the process. The geography quiz is excellent. My knowledge of geography jumped about 500% just from mere exploration of the map, and then it jumped further when I started using the quiz.

I use the dictionary and thesaurus just about every day. It is much faster and more convenient than visiting a dictionary web site. I have learned the meaning of a bunch of new words, too.

To sum up, Encarta is a useful, powerful tool. I just wish they didn't weaken it this year.

Microsoft was long derided by its critics for having failed to fully grasp the Internet revolution. It was late in developing Net technologies such as a proprietary search engine and in coping with security threats propagated through the Web.

Not any more. Earlier this year MSN rolled out a great search engine and now Microsoft has fundamentally revamped its reference products. By committing itself to this overhaul, Microsoft embraced reality: nine out of ten children (between the ages of 5 and 17) use computers (USA figures) - and 85% of these get their information online.

The Microsoft Encarta Premium 2006 is a breathtaking resource. It caters effectively (and, at $50, affordably) to the educational needs of everyone in the family, from children as young as 7 or 8 years old to adults who seek concise answers to their queries. It is fun-filled, interactive, and colorful.

The 2006 Encarta's User Interface is far less cluttered than in previous editions. Content is arranged by topics and then by relevancy and medium. Add to this the Encarta's Visual Browser and you get only relevant data in response to your queries. The Encarta Search Bar, which was integrated into the product two years ago, and is resident in the Task Pane even when Encarta is closed, enables users to search any part of the Encarta application (encyclopedia, dictionary, thesaurus, etc).

The Encarta's new Web Companion is a (giant) step in the right direction. It obtains search results from all the major search engines without launching any additional applications (like a browser). Content from both the Encarta and the Web is presented side by side. This augmentation explicitly adopts the Internet and incorporates it as an important source of reference.

It may raise important and interesting issues of intellectual property, though. Web content copyright-holders may demand royalties from Microsoft for the use it makes of their wares in its commercial products.

Encarta would do well to also integrate with new desktop search tools from Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, and others. Users should be able to seamlessly access content from all over - their desktop, their encyclopedias, and the Web - using a single, intuitive interface.

The Encarta Premium includes a dictionary, thesaurus, chart maker, searchable index of quotations, games, 32 Discovery Channel videos, 25,000 photos and illustrations, 2800 sound and audio clips, hundreds of maps and tables, and 400 videos and animations. It incorporates numerous third-party texts and visuals (including hundreds of newspaper articles and a plethora of Scientific American features).

The Encarta is augmented by weekly or bi-weekly updates and the feature-rich online MSN Encarta Premium with its Homework Help offerings. Unfortunately, the Encarta still conditions some of its functions - notably its research tools and updates - on registration with its Plus Club.

The Encarta is the most comprehensive, PC-orientated reference experience there is. No wonder it has an all-pervasive hold on and ubiquitous penetration of the child-to-young adult markets. Particularly enchanting is the Encarta Kids interface - an area replete with interactive quizzes, pictures, large icons, hundreds of articles, and links to the full version of the Encarta. A veritable and colorful sandbox. Those kids are going to get addicted to the Encarta, that's for sure!

Encarta actively encourages fun-filled browsing. It is a riot of colors, sidebars, videos, audio clips, photos, embedded links, literature, Web resources, and quizzes. It is a product of the age of mass communication, a desktop extension of television and the Internet.

Inevitably, in such a mammoth undertaking, not everything is peachy. A few gripes:

Regrettably, installation is not as easy as before. The Encarta 2006 makes use of Microsoft's .Net technology. As most home computers lack it, the installer insists on adding it to the anyhow bloated Windows Operating System. There is worse to come: the .Net version installed by Encarta 2006 is plagued with security holes and vulnerabilities. Users have to download service packs and patches from Windows Update if they do not wish to run the risk of having their computers compromised by hackers.

Fully installed, the Encarta Premium 2006 gobbles up more than 3.5 Gb. That's a lot - even in an age of ever cheaper storage. Most homesteads still sport PCs with 20-40 Gb hard disks. This makes the Encarta less suitable for installation on older PCs and on many laptops. Despite the hype, relatively few users possess DVD drives (but those who do, find the entire encyclopedia available on one DVD).

The Encarta DVD 3-D tours have improved but they still hog computer resources and are essentially non-interactive. Is it worth the investment and the risk to the stability and performance of the user's computer?

The Encarta tries to cater to the needs of challenged users, such as the visually-impaired - but is still far from doing a good job of it.

The atlas, dictionary, and thesaurus incorporated in the Encarta are outdated. Why not use a more current - and dynamically updated - offering? What about dictionaries for specialty terms (medical or computer glossaries, for instance)? The Encarta's New English Dictionary dropped a glossary of computer terms it used to include back in 2001. All's the pity.

But that's it. Encarta is a must-buy (especially if you have children). The Encarta is the best value for money around and significantly enhances you access to knowledge and wisdom accumulated over centuries all over the world. The amount and quality of content squeezed into a $50 package (before rebate) defies belief. I am a 44 years old adult but when I received my Encarta Premium 2006, I was once more a child in a land of wonders. How much is such an experience worth to you? Sam Vaknin, author of "Malignant Self Love - Narcissism Revisited"

I have purchased Microsoft Encarta for at least the last three years. I like several features of the Encarta Premium 2006 CD/DVD software: the new layout which offers choices according to major themes, the fact that I can install the DVD version on my desktop and the CD version on my laptop, the easy access of the Dictionary/Thesaurus from the taskbar, and the great way that search results are presented. I also like the inclusion again this year of the Encarta for Kids, which is a wonderful way for adults to have a second look at the basic information they really should know from their education. All in all, it's a fun and fantastic learning center at the touch of a few keys.

One may ask what is the point of spending $ on an encyclopedia when there are websites you could go to for free (wikipedia.com answers.com). The reason is simple, Encarta 2006 just has more. Encarta compromises not only of articles, but thousands of pictures, sound and video clips, animations, different types of interactive articles and numerous other features. And with Microsoft releasing a weekly update that includes more of all these features, there's no claim that internet sites are more current. Coming on a disc which can be installed on to multiple computers, I find it nice that I don't need to connect to the internet. This product is worth the money and my advice is to buy it.

Microsoft have had years to get the Encarta interface right, and they still can't manage it. By now we can be sure of their strategy: deliberately build in imperfections and slyly *remove* existing functionality in order to give them something to improve in future editions, without which improvements they will have no product to market every year.

Every year I look for basic improvements which are never there.

- The homepage now has a huge picture of a white sea anemone type creature. A high quality image, but I don't want to see it every darn time! Surely Microsoft would realise that you can't please everyone all the time when it comes to images (desktop wallpapers, screensavers, etc) so why would they palm this thing off on us...?? We cannot get rid of it. Imagine if the background image could change randomly every time using pictures from the encyclopedia. That would have been interesting. Microsoft are just not thinking.

- On the homepage there is a large green information balloon pointing to the search bar. Isn't everyone sick of this sort of patronisation? The first time you see it the balloon performs its function, thereafter it is just annoying. My instinct is to immediately get rid of it (shouting "Alright, I'm not an idiot!") but I can't!

- The only other feature on the homepage is a dull list of subject items on the left, which takes us into a boring spiral of menu choices resulting in a highly selective set of (often disappointing) results. I tried this once and will never use it again. You won't either.

- There is still an almost complete lack of options available for customising Encarta. Certainly no improvement here at all over previous years. What on earth have all those programmers in that huge building in Seattle been doing all this time?

- There has been no updating of the Atlas maps, no new roads or improved accuracy. That would have been a reasonable step forward, but Microsoft seems to have left the Atlas for dead for many years. For example, go to Thailand and browse around for Kanchanaburi, a sizeable town and a prime tourist destination (site of the River Kwai bridge). The town does not even appear on the map. Surely it would be easy enough to run the maps by someone in each country and get them to point out some salient improvements like this?

- There is still no direct link from the homepage to the Atlas! How difficult is it to add an icon for that?? We have to go through the menus to reach it, like it is some trivial addition to the program.

- Where is full screen mode? There is no full screen mode!! The Atlas maps are squashed into a corner of the screen. We need full screen mode for the maps! Doh!!

- There is a large amount of wasted screen space that could have put to better use. A very broad white bar at the top is almost empty. In the Atlas there is a big new sidebar containing pointlessly huge icons that takes up a fair percentage of screen space. These icons are hardly ever used - this is a major design step backwards from the previous edition. They could have used this space to provide bigger "cinemascope" maps - that would have been great. One wonders at the amazing lack of gumption of the people responsible for designing these layouts. But again, we can probably assume they are deliberately putting aside such improvements for future editions.

- I find I am no longer able to associate .erl files (in Explorer) to open in Encarta. No doubt some inscrutable new security system prevents me from doing this, which to me was essential for opening my favourites files (maps) within the Atlas. I'm quite peeved about this.

- The Atlas now defaults to the "hand" curser every time you open it, even though I never use the hand curser, prefering the "select area" cursor. Again, no customisation is allowed. I have to manually click the "select area" curser every time I open the Atlas. Another step backwards and very annoying!

- I'm glad they got rid of the long list of subject headings that appeared on the left side of the homepage (I was tired of seeing "Bertie Ahern" at the top), but it was a mistake to get rid of it completely. There were occasions when it was actually useful to browse down the list - it gave you a feel of exactly how deep the coverage was and was the best method of serendipitous browsing. This list is now nowhere to be found!

In short, the new search interface is the only improvement in the 2006 edition. Given the regression in other areas you will be better off sticking with the 2005 edition. All in all the 2006 edition is hugely disappointing and has really damaged my confidence in Microsoft's ability to give us what we want. This business of routinely releasing new versions every year is holding us back, not taking us forward! You can imagine how terrifed they are that the day will come when they cannot improve the product significantly anymore. You can be sure they will never make it perfect for us for this reason.

I bought the Encarta 2006 Premium edition for my 10-year-old niece so she can get all the help she needs for homework. But while I was installing the program for her I played with it as well and was very impressed with the content. I usually use the free wikipedia online as my encyclopedia tool, but lately many of their entries are defaced by extremists (e.g., calling abortion a "baby killing atrocity," calling Osama bin Laden "a universal liberty-fighting hero," etc.), which made me suspicious of the accuracy of the wikipedia content. (Wikipedia allows *anybody* to edit its entries, so you can just go there and say whatever you want about any entry.)

Anyway, now that I've used Encarta I'm thinking of buying a copy for myself. It's really a great value even before the $10 rebate. It also gives you unlimited online access to Encarta Online.

The encyclopedia entrie are well organized and each entry is well written. Encarta boasts a very large number of multimedia entries. According to the packaging box -- of course I didn't do the counting myself, what am I, crazy? -- you get over 26,000 photos and illustrations, over 300 videos and animations, over 3,000 sounds and music clips, and 1.8 million map locations! The screen layout is very pleasing to the eye and much of the content that I've seen quite superb. My 10-year-old niece is also very happy with this gift and she's become quite addicted to it since I installed the program on her PC a couple weeks ago as an early Santa gift.

In addition to the encyclopedia Encarta 2006 Premium comes with a bunch of interactive tools that I, as an adult, feel are more suited toward youngsters. You also get a dictionary and thesaurus but I have not checked them out.

The program installed smoothly and seems very fast and reliable. However, full installation will cost you a lot of space -- the program content comes on 6 CDs/1 DVD. If you only have a CD-ROM drive, be prepared to swap the CD five times.

In short, this is a great electronic reference tool for adults and kids alike. But kids in particular will benefit tremendously from all the great tools and multimedia this has to offer.

I recommend not buying this product. Encarta is (was) a useful tool, but the 'improvements' in the 2006 version are not helpful. I was previously using the 2000 version which is not only much easier to navigate, but has apparently MORE information.

Just a few of many criticisms include:
The feature for famous quotations is organized only by author, not by subject (as it was in 2000).
There is no audio pronounciation for many of the words in the dictionary.
The atlas is not easily accessible.
The authors of Encyclopaedia articles are not always listed.
The archives are not as complete as in 2000.
It cannot be customized.
The flight-simulator feature has been removed.

I was wrong to purchase the updated version.

Yes, this 2006 Premium edition of "Microsoft Encarta" is a very nice encyclopedia to use despite some of its glaring shortcomings. The installation process went without any problem for me, and the software runs much faster than the "Encyclopaedia Britannica" ever did.
However, you may experience some annoying slow-jerky displays if you try running it on any computer that has less than 256MB of RAM; particularly if the machine's processing speed is below 700MHz. So, all those with older PCs may have to upgrade their hardware, if they want an acceptable multimedia performance from this suite. Also, note that this software runs on Windows 98 and later versions. Meanwhile, users of Windows 2000 Professional should ensure that their operating system has been patched with Service-Pack 4 before acquiring Encarta 2006. Be warned that it will not run on anything less than Service-Pack 4, (if you are using Windows 2000).
That said, the extensive features of this Encarta Premium is indeed powerful. They are exhaustive, and include a wide variety of newly added multimedia touches. Still, anyone who already owns the 2005 (or even the 2004) edition can afford to skip this edition without missing much, since there is not much compelling improvements in terms of both features and performance. However, those who own 2003 or earlier editions may consider taking the upgrade path.
There is no doubt that in terms of sheer information volume, the "Encyclopaedia Britannica" remains the ultimate weapon in an intellectual combat. But, when you speak in terms of dynamic multimedia content, the kudos goes to Encarta. It is the eternal champion of reference suites: as long as the issue concerns intuitive and interactive multimedia contents.
Comparatively, either Encarta or Britannica will serve the purpose of any modern high school research. Buying the two software is really unnecessary; except perhaps, for those who work with archives and/or other Research and Development institutions. For postgraduate students and university dons, who go into extensive historical researches, the best option is without question Britannica. In it you will encounter several articles that were written by the famous historical figures of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Even Albert Einstein's articles are in it.
But if your work includes using statistical data for comparative analyses, better forget Britannica and go for Encarta. Most of the data in Britannica are outdated. Some are even more than thirty years old! Conversely, the biggest shortcoming of Encarta encyclopedia is that some of its assertions on developing countries (particularly African countries) are incorrect. Experts in African studies will frequently frown at the high number of errors, which they will encounter in the course of using this "Microsoft Encarta" suite.
Overall, this is a very nice encyclopedia to use. It contains all the things that most people will ever need from a multimedia encyclopedia. However, I did not rate it higher than three stars because of the number of errors it bears regarding the geo-political data of developing countries. Let me hope that all the necessary corrections will be made in future editions.

To the individual that posted right before me, I have to say, you really need to not be such a sheep in this world.

If you can find ONE alternative to Encarta (and don't even say wikipedia) that even comes CLOSE to the features, ease of use and extra utilities (not counting the images, videos, etc) then by all means, I will give it a try and make an honest opinion.

Personally, I don't like Microsoft Windows or Office for that matter... I use Linux/Mac/FreeBSD and OpenOffice.org... if I have to use a server as a backup, I am sure to use Apache and not IIS... but my dislike for Microsoft is in their Operating System and their Office Package, only because there are alternatives out there, that in my opinion are better and free. However, when it comes to Encarta, I don't dislike Microsoft. You see, you have to look at things as more than black and white. There is NO other encyclopedia software or web based service that can even CLAIM to compare to the outstanding piece of software we call Encarta.

The problem with you, is that you hate BLINDLY for no other reason than your buddies probably told you about the big bad microsoft and how they are against open source. For once, have a mind of your own and actually USE a piece of software before you bash it.

For those thinking about buying Encarta, I have one thing to say. For you and your children, there is no better tool and information source you can find... it is worth every penny and much, much more! 2006 packs SOO much information, it is unbelievable... however, for parents with kids in middle or high school, I suggest you go with "Microsoft Student 2006" instead... it is a little more expensive, but well worth the extra 20-30 dollars! It includes Microsoft Encarta Premium 2006, AS WELL as all the homework, book report, math, etc tools that "Microsoft Encarta Reference Library 2005" became known for.

Anyway, that is my 2 cents worth... I hope you all purchase it and enjoy what it can do for not only parents and their children, but for single people too... I am unmarried with no children, but I LOVE Encarta just the same... I use it all the time, especially the dictionary and thesaurus that integrates directly into the task bar, even when Encarta is not running!

I've been hooked on Encarta since 1998 when it came preloaded on my first computer. I've had it ever since. It has everything for any age group from child to adult. I find the 3D views of famous places especially fascinating. It's like taking a trip without leaving your house.