The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group
Microsoft Encarta 98 Encyclopaedia
Deluxe Edition
 Ash Nallawalla
 ash@melbpc.org.au

My previous encounter with Microsoft Encarta was its 1995 edition and I have not had the chance to review competing products. Hence this is not a comparative review. I have admired other people's bound copies of the Encyclopaedia Britannica (EB) but I had resolved never to buy a paper encyclopaedia. While I know the EB is now available on CD-ROM and the Web, I have not needed to seek them for closer inspection.

Microsoft has released Encarta 98 with an alternative, Deluxe Edition, which is reviewed here. It is the "World English" (not US English) version.

What is Encarta?

Encarta is a multimedia product, which means that it adds still and moving images, and sound to text. Hypertext links make it easy to explore related topics. This encourages the user to be immersed in the subject matter. A search tool makes it easy to find something.

Encarta has more than 30,000 articles, or 10.5 million words. Topics range from Cosmic Strings to Chinese Mythology, Botany to Botany Bay, Zebra to Zymurgy. They are supported by 12,000 images, 4000 audio and music clips, and 140 videos and animations, 1400 maps, charts and tables. Thirty-five panoramic (360 degree) still images help to put you in the picture, so to speak.

Two hundred and fifty new commentaries, known as Sidebars, have been contributed by experts in their fields or are verbatim extracts from famous documents.


Figure 1. A 360-degree look at Westminster Abbey


Figure 2. A functional calculator supplements an article on Compound Interest

Some of this content is packaged as multimedia Collages, which could be described as a "contextual envelope". A similar concept is a Virtual Tour, which is a collection of journeys on Earth and in the Space Shuttle. The detailed links lead to the familiar, textual material.

Encarta has an update mechanism for those with Internet access. I was able (in early November) to have my copy updated with the July, August, and September issues. Topics are also linked to third-party Web sites that appear to complement the subject matter.

If you are using Encarta for research, then the new Research Organizer will help you. It enables you to organise the material you have collected from CD-ROM and online sources into one collection. You can create an outline and then mould it into a report. The accompanying tutorial and help files serve to teach good research habits.


Figure 3. The Olympics collage


Figure 4. A virtual tour of the Space Shuttle

Why British?

If I have a tiny problem with this edition, it is that Australia is somehow connected with the UK and I don't mean in the historic sense. When I clicked on the Encarta home page (http://www.encarta.eng.msn.com) through a link in the software, it turned out to be the UK site, with prices in Pounds.

Dictionary

The dictionary in Encarta is very British in content, favouring the "ize" verb endings that are preferred by the Oxford camp, whereas our Macquarie dictionary (and the PC Update style guide) prefers the "ise" endings. Oddly, the UK Encarta Web site itself prefers the "ise" spelling and mentions "45 full time in house editors, fact checkers and proofers" who helped to create this version. Those experts need to visit the Encarta UK site and give it a badly needed once-over.

Some entries appear to have made a toehold in Encarta seemingly at random. The dictionary has some abbreviations, for example, DTI (UK Department of Trade and Industry) that has little relevance to an Australian reader. If you are interested in quality management systems, then you would be disappointed to find that QMS refers to a Quartermaster Sergeant. While Christ merits a noun and an adjective, Mohammed and Zoroaster rate only as adjectives.

In balance, the British team has made a very good job of changing the US spellings in articles to British English, which is closer to the flavour we use here. In my attempts to catch them out, I found not one errant "color", "diarrhea", or "encyclopedia". You can click on any word in the articles to call up its entry in the dictionary.


Figure 5. The Concise Oxford Dictionary within Encarta


Figure 6. You can update the Yearbook through the Internet

How up-to-date?

The Australian content is much more respectable than in the first edition, which I criticised for some very dodgy population figures for our main cities. Prime Minister Howard's name is mentioned briefly in a reference to February 1997, but his photograph and sound clip have not yet made their way here, as did his predecessor. Another entry is as recent as April 1997, which makes the product quite up-to-date in my book. The online options help to keep it more current.

Recommendation

I recommend Encarta 98, particularly its Deluxe Edition. It is a polished work, and will make an excellent addition to the Christmas stocking.

Reprinted from the December 1997 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia

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