A good place to start is the "Explorer" => "Encyclopedia Outline".
Mainly because it gives an overview of the contents in a concise manner and any subject is just one click away. It also is just a click to get back to this outline (just as you left it) by using the "Go Back" button at the bottom of every encyclopedia page.
How is the information organized?
This is a fresh approach to encyclopedic reference.
A thematic organization, which allows for the entire story to be told on a related topic.
There are 11 main sections, including:
The Nature of the Universe, including space, physics and sciences.
The Restless Earth, the earth, its physical makeup, properties and climate etc.
The Living Planet, covers plants and animals, biology etc.
The Human Organism, man and how we function.
The World Today, society and mankind as we are today.
Technology and Industry, the uses of technology in today's world.
A History of the World, the development of society.
Religion and Philosophy, thought, reason and greater beings.
The Visual Arts, the development of artistic expression in art
Music and Dance, the development of artistic expression in music and dance
Language and Literature, The art of oral and written expression.
Yes, but how do I get to all of it?
Access it by section topic, subsection or section through the main Encyclopedia interface. Note the Outline boxes in every top left corner. It tells you where you are and allows you to go back to previous levels of the interface.
What other ways are there to "find" something?
The Explorer option allows searching in four different ways:
By Encyclopedia Outline list, scroll the list, search the list, get an overview of just how the Encyclopedia is organized.
By Subject, find any text by subject matter.
By Image Title, find any image and go to it through the search routine.
By Text Search, select all the sections or just one to search all the text for any word.
Cool, but can I just look at the media elements without going through the Encyclopedia interface?
The Gallery option, allows accessing/searching for images by title.
Lets say that you want to see an image of the Blue Mosque in Istanbul.
Each type of media is separated: photos, movies, animations, illustrations, languages. Search any or all.
What features are within the Encyclopedia?
The outline boxes in the upper left corner (see above)
A "See also" box in the lower right allows one click access to related topics. (This appears in every encyclopedia page.)
Navigation Bar at the bottom of each page, allows quick access to other ways of accessing the data.
Note the "Go Back", much like Hansel and Grettle's bread crumbs -- this allows a path to be traced back out from where you are now.
(you're never lost.)
Some images will have a Play button on them, this indicates that they are either a movie or an animation. Click on the button to start the movie/animation. The movie/animation opens a separate window with a controller bar at the bottom. At the left side of the bar is sound control and a play/stop button. The slider bar allows the movie to be "panned" at the speed you move it.
Text starts with the Title and (1 of 4) press the "more" buttons to access more text for each topic covered...ons to access more text for each topic covered.
At the Encyclopedia interface, you are given choices that narrow the topic or subject down, until finally you arrive in the main encyclopedia text/image window. This window has seven functional areas:
1. The Outline box in the upper left corner shows you where and how you got here (by your narrowing choices) and allows you to go back up the hierarchy of choices.
2. The Left and Right arrows, allows you to move through all the text in this section. This includes text directly related to this text (Each Text portion is marked (1 of 4), (2 of 4), etc...) and also text in related areas.
3. The Caption box, provides more information about the illustrative image/photograph/movie or animation provided.
4. The TEXT, gives detailed information about this topic.
5. The See Also Box, provides a "hot" link to other sections or text that gives more information on topics related to this one.
6. The Tool Bar, a standard set of functions available everywhere within the encyclopedia. A good tool within this bar is the "GO BACK" button. The "GO BACK" button allows you to backtrack out of wherever you have ended up.
7. The Image area, illustrates the topic discussed. Optionally has a "PLAY" button that allows a movie or animation window to be displayed and the movie or animation to be "played".
At the MAIN interface, there are three options to approach the Encyclopedia.
1: The MULTIMEDIA GALLERY, this gets at the multimedia elements of the encyclopedia without the text.
2. The EXPLORER, gives four methods of searching the encyclopedia. The outline method gives an overview of how everything is organized and how it all fits together.
3. The ENCYCLOPEDIA, an hierarchical organization with topics narrowing in focus through three layers of organization. This organization is best viewed in the EXPLORER Encyclopedia Outline option.
ption.
In the EXPLORER interface, there are four optional ways of "exploring" or searching for information.
1. The Encyclopedia Outline is an outline of the contents of all the information in the encyclopedia. This gives an overview of how everything is organized and how it all fits together.
2. The Subject Finder, is a list of many different subjects covered in the encyclopedia. This then gets you started on a subject that interests you. The See Also boxes will allow expanding on this subject.
3. The Image Finder, allows you to locate a portion of the encyclopedia by the image that is used to illustrate it.
4. The Search Encyclopedia, can be used to search portions of the encyclopedia (by section) or the entire encyclopedia for a particular word or words.
In the GALLERY interface, there are five different multimedia types of illustrations etc. to see. Each has an alphabetical list that can be searched for particular elements. The five multimedia types are:
1. Photographs
2. Illustrations
3. Languages (sound)
4. Movies
5. Animations
In the Countries interface, (on the companion disc) each of the countries of the world is described and a map is provided. The first screen gives a searchable list of the countries in alphabetical order. Each country is just one click away. Once at the country, there are four functional areas:
1. The TEXT, describing the country and relevant details.
2. A MAP of the country
3. The Tool Bar, with at set of uniform functions.
4. Buttons to facilitate access and printing of the map and text.
Playing the animations or movies:
The movie or animation window is a simple window with a play button in the lower left corner (toggles pause or play function.) A slide bar on the bottom, shows where the current frame is with in the movie. There is also a close box in the upper left corner.
In the Languages interface, phrases in 34 languages are accessible. These common phrases allow the flavor of the language to be sampled and some learning of the language to take place.
The Countries interface will bring up the language relating to the country that is currently being displayed (if it is among the 34).
Click on the phrase to hear, or
Click on "To Language Choices" to select a different language.
Choose context:
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