Encyclopaedia Britannica 2006 Ultimate Reference Suite (PC/Mac DVD)

What can you say about The Encyclopaedia Britannica? It is a vast source of information, but if you look up a subject you know something about, you can be surprised by how innacurate it is. It is not a totally reliable source, so I can't give it five stars.

not great would not run

I have just had a look at my new copy of the Britannica 2006 DVD and am extremely impressed. It has been completely revamped compared to the older versions I have and the interface is now intuitive and uncluttered. It is also more fun to use for example there is a new 'this day in history tool' which offers a date based daily selection of relevant articles. It still has more content than any other Encyclopedia - the DVD version having more than even the famous Britannica Print set - and fully supports serious research It is thorough, well researched, comprehensive and trustworthy. Not only are there onver 100,000 articles but links to over 165,00 websites recommended by Britannica Editors for further reading - you will no longer need to spend hours on search engines like Google! There are also databases for younger members of the family, one aimed at senior school level the other primary school, and lots of multimedia - vidoes, interactive atlas and timeline, research organiser, the list seems almost endless. Definately fantastic value for money especially when you consider that the books are nearly £1,000!

I must say that I have been extremly impressed with the 2006 Britannica DVD. The Software is easy to use and the articles are in-depth and throughly engaging. The Students Encyclopedia has proven to be an invaluable resource for my 2 children (8 & 13) both for homework assignments and for general interest. I also look forward to making use of the Eurotalk CD during my summer holidays!

EB own words: "Unfortunately, at this time the Britannica software is not compatible with Windows Vista. We are working on developing another version of the 2007 software that will work on Windows Vista and we are planning to release this version in the upcoming months. Please check back with us in another month or so and we should have some more information about the Vista-compatible software. But, it is entirely possible that we will not have Windows Vista compatible version of the 2007 product available and that we will wait until the development of the 2008 software." They do NOT offer a reasonable on-line subscription.

It is no doubt that Britannica is the best encyclopaedia brand on the market but when they try to make a cd/dvd software of it they just screw up again and again.I made the same mistake after three years and purchased dvd-rom version.I can not see even the articles and also its bear-mentioning brain stormer and atlas do not work.I tried to resolve the issue by getting help from support pages and support team but NOTHING changed.So,if you think about buying it; be ready to lots of problems to be resolved!

I received this item more than one week late. The Eurotalk language CD was missing. I have tried for two days to contact Amazon by email but their system keeps crashing. The package of the item received is different from that published. Totally frustrating!!!!!!

I agree fully with the previous reviewer. The quality of the CD/DVD presentation is extremely poor, making articles difficult to read, and the coverage is short and superficial. Check out Encarta as a much better alternative.