home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
Miggybyte 5
/
Miggybyte 5.adf
/
DOCS
/
MB_17.TXT
/
MB_17.TXT
Wrap
Text File
|
1996-02-03
|
5KB
|
114 lines
The Grolier Electronic Encyclopedia (CD-ROM)
--------------------------------------------
Reviewed on: A1200 with 2 chip and 4 fast
As far as I know it should run on all Amigas (inc CDTV) with CD-ROMS
In 1985 Grolier released the first ever 'Electronic Encyclopedia' on
CD-ROM, since then the has been updated and improved. It contains the
complete texts from the 21 volume Academic American Encyclopedia, it also
contains over 2000 photographs and illustrations, plus many sound
samples.
First appearances
On starting up the encyclopedia the first disappointment is the interface
doesn't run under intuition, but as the encyclopedia was originally
intended for the CD32 this can be forgiven, just.
The interface in its self is very easy to use and well laid out, but the
lack of an exit button is unforgivable though you can exit the program
with a key stoke.
The Topic Tree
There are many ways to access the information contained within the
Encyclopedia but probably the most popular way is to use the Topic Tree
option to just browse through the many entries.
On selecting the Topic Tree from the main menu you are then presented
with a screen with the following icons representing the subtopics,
Geography, History, Science, Society, Technology and the Arts. Once you
have made your selection you are then presented with a list of further
sub topics, for example if you selected Science you would then be shown a
subtopic list,
Astronomy
Biological Sciences
Chemistry
Earth Sciences
Human Body
Mathematics
Medical Sciences
etc etc etc.
If you then selected say, 'Human Body' you would then be presented with a
topic list on the 'Human Body',
Anatomy
Bone
Brain
Circulatory System
Digestive System
Diseases, human
Ear
Endorine system
etc etc etc
Then you selected a topic you wish to view and you are then presented
with a text file on the chosen topic.
Search routines (Fact Finder)
The most popular use of an encyclopedia is to look up a topic to find as
much information on your chosen topic. This is where an electronic
encyclopedia shines. With a normal encyclopedia you would look up your
topic in the Index and/or in the Contents pages. The 'Fact Finder' shows
why the computer has taken over the role of sorting and locating
information. When the 'Fact Finder' icon is selected you are prompted to
enter a topic to search for. The topic you wish to search for can be
entered from a keyboard of mouse or keypad via an on screen keyboard,
thus being fully CD32 compatible and also any person with typing
difficulties can use the mouse to enter their topics. Once a topic has
been entered the program searches all the entries in the encyclopedia for
the said topic and displays a list of all the links found. Then it is up
to you to explore them at your own free will. One thing that was very
impressive was the speed of the search engine, that is so fast its
worrying, you might think it might be skipping parts of the encyclopedia.
Viewing the texts
Once you have loaded a text to view you are presented with a viewer with
the standard scroll bar on the side of the screen to move through the
text. Also when viewing a text you will come across a highlighted word
in the text. If you place the pointer over the highlighted text and
click, it will display some extra text on the highlighted word. Also
some of the texts have related pictures, this is shown by an icon of a
camera that lights up at the bottom of the screen. Once the camera icon
is clicked upon the associated picture is displayed with a small caption
and sound sample is played if one is linked to the picture (though the
sample are few and far between). There is also an option to print the
current text to the printer or save it to a floppy disk, very handy for
assignments (not that I would do that).
This is a very comprehensive collection of information on more topics
than most people will even require in their life time and the information
is very well written and explained. The only criticism and its a big one
is the lack of high quality images as the ones on the CD are not much
better than the type you get on colour clip art CDs. Also the total lack
of animations is unforgivable after all this is a mass storage medium.
That being said I must say the quality of the writing is very impressive
especially the history entries. Also delicate matters like the human sex
life is handled incredible well and I would have no quorums letting any
children read it.
If you on the look out for an electronic encyclopedia for your Amiga then
this is defiantly worth a look.
Madness
END
---