Microsoft Encarta 2004 Premium Suite

This is the top-notch edition of the world's best-selling encyclopaedia. It contains, if Microsoft is to be believed, more information than a 60-volume print encyclopaedia, but the point of a DVD-based reference work is that it's so much more than just words and pictures, and it is here that Encarta excels. With a massive archive from The Times, school-oriented homework and project tools, live weather and radio from the net and videos from the likes of the BBC, ABC and Discovery Channel, it can keep you amused for hours. You can already tell we're impressed.

Encarta has a long pedigree and comes in three flavours: 'Standard', 'Plus' and 'Premium Suite'. Premium Suite contains an impressive 130,000 articles, 1.8 million atlas locations and over 260 videos and animations. In the standard edition these stats drop to a more conservative 34,800, 36,000 and 100 respectively. With so much data at your fingertips, though, you're going to rely heavily on the indexing system, and we're pleased to report this is something Microsoft has got spot on.

Encarta opens with the Visual Browser, a new feature that mimics the Knowledge Navigator found in Britannica. Microsoft describes it as an innovative way to discover relationships between content and topics, but in reality it's simply a more visual, cut-down edition of the links found in most encyclopaedia entries. We'd rather stick to the integrated search tool, which is very versatile and can be constrained to hunting through only certain media types - text, videos, sound and so forth.

By far the most intriguing way to explore the suite is through the Interactive Timeline, which layers key historical events so that you can see how they inter-relate. Crammed with hotspots, it is an innovative way to link together the various parts of the encyclopaedia and an intriguing jump-off point for the more casual browser.

Microsoft makes much of the fact that Encarta now includes videos from the Discovery Channel and, as far as the multimedia entries go, these are, not surprisingly, the most compelling components. They are found only on the DVD edition, but are long enough to teach you something and cover such diverse subjects as the formation of stars and the evolution of birds.

Sadly the same can't be said for much of the remaining video content, which is often bitty and looks like it was put together using scraps from the cutting-room floor. Footage of the Kennedy assassination is particularly weak, taking you from his arrival in Dallas to his coffin-clad dispatch in less than 30 seconds. There is no narration. The 'bombardment during the Blitz' is equally unimpressive, and does little to convey the scale or horror of the event itself.

This is more than just an encyclopaedia, though; Encarta incorporates dictionaries and thesauruses from Bloomsbury, and a collection of over 20,000 quotes, which should appeal to the budding author struggling for inspiration. Its bilingual dictionaries translate between a range of European languages and, for the visually impaired, the read-aloud function will dictate on-screen articles.

There is no denying the time and money put into Encarta has been well spent. It is a bargain at less than £70 and, with online updates, it promises a shelf life that far exceeds that of the printed equivalents. If you are after a digital encyclopaedia, this is the one to go for, as past reviews of Britannica, the obvious rival, have shown its conversion from paper to pixel to be an uncomfortable and clumsy undertaking.

Somehow, though, there's an element of flatness to this release. It doesn't excite in the way it used to, even as recently as last year, but that might be because we all know what to expect now, and it may also be because of the Visual Browser that dominates the home page. Online updates were once an innovation. Now they are merely something we accept as part of the deal. The 3D visual tours that allow you to walk the corridors of the Colosseum were a novelty last year. This year they feel a bit tired, and if your games ran this slow you'd upgrade your PC. Encarta remains one of the most engaging, authoritative apps on the market, but we'd hate to see it become worthy at the expense of its sense of fun.

Contact: Microsoft 0870 601 0100
www.microsoft.com/uk

Specifications:,/B>

• Windows 98/ME/2000/XP
• 333MHz or faster processor
• 64MB of Ram (128MB for Windows 2000 and XP)
• Colour monitor with 800 x 600 or higher resolution
• 16MB graphics card
• 260MB hard drive space
• DVD-Rom drive