Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2770 in Software
• Brand: Britannica
• Released on: 2004-09-01
• Platforms: Mac, Windows

Manufacturer's Description
Bring and Entire Reference Library to Your Computer Screen;With more than 100,000 articles, including all the articles in the Encyclopædia Britannica Print Set, the Ultimate Reference Suite 2005 has more content than any other reference software! Owning the Encyclopædia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite is like having a complete reference library right at your fingertips. Its contents would easily fill a large bookcase - and now you can have this vast trove of information on your personal computer. With three complete encyclopedias, two dictionaries and thesauruses, rich multimedia, a complete atlas, timelines, online magazines, and more, the Ultimate Reference Suite is the knowledge you need from the world`s most trusted source. The Ultimate Reference Suite also includes a 90 day free trial to Encyclopædia Britannica Online.;New for 2005;Britannica BrainStormer: Interactive, visual browsing tool used to browse over 78,478 entries, and over 1.3 million article relationships from the Encyclopaedia Britannica; An additional year of Britannica Book of the Year content: Content now spans events of 1993-2003.;Redesigned Interface - The Ultimate Reference Suite is easier to use than ever! Articles are easier to find and read; the Ultimate Reference Suite integrates perfectly with your Operating System, whether it be Mac or Windows.;More Video - Britannica has added extensive amounts of new video designed to bring research topics to life. The Ultimate Reference Suite now has more than three hours of video.;Free Britannica Learning Library volumes;Young readers experience the joy of discovery with this beautiful new series of titles for ages 6 to 12. Full of color photos, specially commissioned illustrations, and superbly written articles, the Britannica Learning Library is the perfect addition to any child's home library. Seventeen titles cover the subjects children love, each with articles of varying types essays, biographies, letters, poems, and stories to expose children to different writing styles.   Individual titles cover Exploring Space, Planet Earth, Science and Nature, Technology and Inventions, The Arts, Artists Around the World, Legends, Myths, and Folktales, Religions Around the World, Remarkable People in History, Views of Europe, Views of Asia, Australia and New Zealand, Views of Africa, Views of Americas, Food Plants, Creatures of the Waters, Wildlife Wonders and Familiar Animals.

Box Contents

Customer Reviews

The Best Yet!
I have just had a look at the new 2005 Britannica DVD and have to say its the best yet - with over 100,000 articles (more than the 32 volume book set) it doesn't compare to any other Encyclopedia. It has three age levels which is great if you have kids, I use the Adult library which is so indepth you can be searching for hours. The new interface is much simpler than before and there is lots of multimedia to keep the kids entertained. There are also weblinks so you can go direct to a site for further reading without wastings hours searching on Google or other search engines for what you are looking for. The Dictonary, Timelines, Atlas, and new Brainstormer features are great additions and its well worth the money, the kids loved the free books too.

Britannica 2005 Ultimate - great contents, gruesome software
The PROs:
Britannica 2005 Ultimate Reference Suite offers one of the best if not the best encyclopedia contents on the market. The same DVD works also for both Mac and Windows. Suite refers to the standard Britannica being bundled with the student and the children's edition - great for families.

The CONs:
To put it bluntly, the software sucks. Even on a fast computer it runs like a heavy duty graphics application. Searching the encyclopedia takes ages, moving windows and other simple interface tasks are sluggish. The interfacec takes away too much screen from the articles. Besides the application is not stable - I had a crash in the timeline feature the very first time I used Britannica 2005 and it continues to crash every once in a while.

CONCLUSIONS:
Get it for the contents if you don't mind a lousy application. After all you will spend most of your time reading, with the app sitting silently in the background.

And dear Britannica programmers, it's sad to see a great dictionary presented by such a bad piece of software. Get your act together.

Better than ever
I brought the Ultimate Reference DVD last year and found it invaluable with interesting facts and a large knowledge base. The 2005 version is even better - the interface is easier to use and the multimedia easier to locate.
Nothing beats the Britannica brand for accuracy and the wealth of information.