This is only a preview of the June 2004 issue of Silicon Chip. You can view 17 of the 96 pages in the full issue, including the advertisments. For full access, purchase the issue for $10.00 or subscribe for access to the latest issues. Items relevant to "Dr Video Mk.2: An Even Better Video Stabiliser":
Items relevant to "An RFID Security Module":
Items relevant to "Fridge-Door Open Alarm":
Items relevant to "Courtesy Light Delay For Cars":
Items relevant to "Upgraded Software For The EPROM Programmer":
Purchase a printed copy of this issue for $10.00. |
Review:
Encarta 2004
Premium Suite
Multimedia Encyclopaedia
Electronic encyclopaedias have been around
for a while now and they just continue to get
better. This latest offering from Microsoft
packs more than an equivalent
60-volume printed set onto a single
DVD. It features fast and efficient
content searches, built-in report
building and rich multimedia content
not available in the bound editions.
By PETER SMITH
E
NCARTA 2004 PREMIUM SUITE integrates an
encyclopaedia, World atlas, dictionary and thesaurus into one seamless package. It is available in either
CD or DVD format and runs on all recent versions of
Windows.
Multimedia presentation means that along with the
facts and figures, you also get sounds, animations and
movies. Naturally, this is one of the biggest selling
points of what is now the world’s most popular multimedia encyclopaedia. Included in the 2004 edition are
130,000 articles, 25,000+ photos and illustrations, 3000
sound and music clips, 1.8 million atlas locations and
over 260 videos and animations.
Equally important to content is the ability to be able
to pinpoint, extract and organise the material of interest. This is exceptionally easy in Encarta 2004 with the
aid of a web-based interface and excellent search facilities. If you’ve used a web browser before, you’ll be able
to drive Encarta “out of the box”.
Basic features
Encarta uses a concept called “centres” to provide
casual access to its vast store of information. Each
centre is accessible via a drop-down menu on the main
toolbar. Available centres include articles, maps, multimedia content, statistics, geographical tours, historical
siliconchip.com.au
timelines, games and online material.
For more than just casual browsing, you can use
Encarta’s powerful search facilities to quickly find
what you want. A search from the main toolbar draws
elements from the encyclopaedia, atlas, dictionary,
thesaurus and the Internet and arranges the results in a
familiar “web” style page layout. For example, a search
for “Albert Einstein” returns a main article on the man,
headed with a clickable contents list. A series of related
resources appears in the right margin, including links
to additional articles, quotations, multimedia content, a
sidebar from the Times (in this case, Einstein’s obituary)
and links to recommended Internet sites.
As you identify content that is pertinent to your
work, you can add it to your Favourites list for instant
access later. Even better, you can gather text and media
“on the fly” using the Researcher tool. This excellent
tool also makes it easy to add statistics, charts, tables,
notes and more to your reports. Of course, you can also
export content to other applications if so desired.
Study centre
If you’re having trouble getting started on a project,
help is available in the Study centre. There you’ll find a
Project Starters guide that gives advice on how to write
an essay, book report, research paper, lab report and
June 2004 35
Fig.1: Encarta opens with the Visual Browser, inviting you
to click your way in to its depths. It’s web-based interface
means that anyone can use it.
Fig.4: Encarta includes a comprehensive World atlas with
over 1800 map points. Explore the World using a variety
of map styles to learn about populations, climates, politics,
economies and much more. You can even place “pins” in
the globe, complete with notes for later reference.
science project, to name but a few. To help with presentation, you’ll also find a selection of basic templates for
use with the Researcher tool.
Budding authors will appreciate the Literature Guide,
which helps to explain themes, characters and settings from over 120 classics in literature. Also of note
is the Curriculum Guide, which is intended as an aid
to teachers and parents. Using this guide, you can find
information in a range of subjects suitable for secondary
and senior secondary levels of study.
Internet access
Fig.2: a web-based interface and powerful search facilities
ensures ease of use. Once you’ve pinpointed what you
want, you can add it to your Favourites list for later
access or copy desired elements to build your project.
The Internet is an important resource for study material, but tracking down relevant information is often a
time-consuming task. Encarta’s editors ease the pain
somewhat by providing a host of links to recommended
material.
With its web browser interface, Encarta marries
Internet content seamlessly to local CD/DVD content,
significantly increasing the amount of information at
your disposal. For those concerned about content on
the ’net, you can enable the parental controls option to
ensure only “family-friendly” hits are returned.
Encarta can be updated on-line for one year from date
of release at no additional cost. For this edition, the cutoff date is October 2004.
Learning can be fun!
Fig.3: the Timeline is an intuitive and engaging way of
discovering related events in history. Clicking on any
hotspot opens a short text description, complete with
links to related material.
36 Silicon Chip
As well as direct access to information through Encarta’s search facilities, Microsoft has included several
other interesting ways of exploring encyclopaedia
content. For example, the Interactive Timeline allows
you to scroll through time from Earth’s geological beginnings right up to the present. Historical periods and
events appear as horizontal strands of time, each clickable to reveal a short text description along with links
to related material. Importantly, multiple strands are
“overlaid”, allowing you to see how these periods and
events interrelate.
New to this version of Encarta is the Visual Browser,
siliconchip.com.au
another way of exploring a particular topic in depth.
Essentially, it’s just a series of animated graphical links
related to the displayed topic. Nevertheless, it provides
a unique way of exploring interrelated information,
especially if you’re looking for inspiration or just enjoy
browsing.
Found in the Tours centre, “Map Treks” are an interesting and informative way of exploring any region on
the globe. Based on a variety of map styles from Encarta’s atlas, you can learn all about populations, climates,
politics, economies and much more.
If all that sounds a little boring, then check out historic cities and places or take a field trip in the 2-D Tours
section. Here you’ll find Mount Everest, the Serengeti
Plane, Prague, the Kremlin and even the Space Shuttle,
to name a few. Each tour incorporates a map of your
route, a series of photos and 360° panoramic images
that showcase the multimedia content of Encarta.
Ancient ruins
Fig.5: explore man-made and natural wonders and
famous cities in the 2-D Tours centre. 360° panoramic
images really bring the experience to life.
If that’s not enough, you can visit ancient ruins and
landmarks from the past in the 3-D Tours section. With
a few mouse clicks, enter tombs in Ramses II’s temple
in Abu Simbel, navigate the passages of the Colosseum
in Rome or visit Beaumaris Castle in North Wales.
Younger students will appreciate the quizzes and
interactivities in the Games centre. There you can explore a variety of different topics such as insect structure, world music and natural wonders.
As a bonus, the 2004 edition includes 20 high-quality
videos from the Discovery Channel. Watch animals in
their natural habitat, see where electricity comes from
or learn how stars evolve. Note, however, that you’ll
need the DVD version of the product to get all 20 videos.
Summary
This review has focused on the Premium Suite release of Encarta 2004. Cut-down versions with less content are also available but at the recently reduced RRP
of $129.95, we think that most will opt for “the works”.
At this price, it has to be one of the best educational
products on the market.
A complete list of system requirements appears below. Note that when installing the product, you have a
choice of a minimum or full installation. A full installation copies the entire contents to your hard disk drive,
speeding access and eliminating the need to continually
switch discs during use. This is by far the preferred
method but does require about 2GB of free drive space.
Fig.6: interactivities help make the learning experience
more memorable. In this anatomy study, any of the 10
body systems can be displayed by clicking on the relevant
buttons.
The CD version ships on four CDs, whereas the DVD
version requires only a single disc. If your PC reads
DVDs, get the DVD version. This eliminates potential
disk swapping and you get the full complement of
SC
videos as well.
System Requirements
•
•
•
•
•
Windows 98/ME/2000/XP
333MHz or faster processor (500MHz recommended)
64MB of RAM (128MB for Windows 2000 and XP)
Super VGA, 16-bit or higher supporting 800 x 600
screen resolution
4MB or more of video memory
siliconchip.com.au
•
•
•
•
•
260MB hard drive space minimum
Quad-speed CD-ROM drive (CD version) or DVDROM drive (DVD version)
16-bit sound card with speakers or headphones
Internet Explorer 6.0 or later (included on CD,
requires 100MB additional hard disk space)
Access to the Internet
June 2004 37
|