IT’S A SMALL WORLD
A Review of Microsoft Encarta 96 World Atlas
by Susan Davis
World Atlas, to me, has always inspired visions of huge coffee-table size books, with pretty colored pictures and faraway place names that I’ll never be able to pronounce. When I received my copy of Microsoft’s Encarta 96 World Atlas to review, I was pretty skeptical of even Microsoft’s attempt to capture the information of the world in a manageable form. Please notice that I didn’t doubt that Microsoft would try, just that they might actually succeed.
I was certainly surprised when I started the program to a view of a well-craft interface, complete with Cosmo, the miniature globe, as my tour guide. Cosmo was a nice touch, actually. He defaults to “On” but you can turn him off if you get tired of his little animated antics. I, however, did not, because his information, tips, and general advice are extremely helpful.
Often the cute little interface toys are a way to disguise a poorly designed physical interface, but I was happy to find out that this wasn’t the case for once. Cosmo was just the tip of the iceberg, so to speak. You are presented with a three-dimensional, scaleable globe at startup. You can use your mouse to reposition or rescale the globe at any point on its surface, and then explore from there. You can look up navigational aids like longitude and latitude, as well as a staggering amount of statistics and cultural facts, and that’s all from the main interface globe. You can see everything from how many airports Nigeria has to the number of nearly extinct bird species in Scotland. When you select a type of statistic, you can even just wander your mouse around the globe, and find out the statistic for any given place.
If you still have the urge to explore and haven’t achieved information overload yet, you can also utilize the well-indexed -- and speedy -- Find function to find locations all around the world. Encarta boasts that, unlike the paper variety of atlas, the maps are almost infinitely scaleable in comparison. You can supposedly pinpoint an area or location down to a one mile spot and see the same detail and statistics available to even large areas of the world.
In addition to the more standard atlas features like maps and statistics, you also have access to a variety of multimedia learning tools, such as audio of cultural songs, images of breathtaking sights around the world, video clips, and even photographs of “A Day in the Life” for a wide variety of countries and cultures. Encarta boasts of over one million place names available, and I’ve certainly never heard of most of them. I can’t imagine how many thousands of man-hours it took to compile all of that information, much less make it useful and easily accessible to the likes of us. The two things about Encarta that really overwhelm me are the depth of information and the ease of use. To find both at the same time is truly a prize.
I tried pretty hard to find something to dislike, but, frankly, I couldn’t. As a learning tool, Encarta is incredibly valuable. As family amusement and entertainment, it is a great place to gather and discuss the height of the mountains in North America, or the names of the rivers in Africa, or the number of wildlife species in the Amazon, or a horde of other facts available. One thing Encarta will never be is BORING!
The interface is not only detailed and intuitive, it is also smooth in its operation. Menus slide down smoothly, never jerking your eyes around, and the three-dimensional feel of the Windows 95 interface is exploited beautifully by its creator -- Microsoft. Yet, for all its features, the basics of the program can be operated by even younger children, with large buttons and animated movements to entertain and draw the eye.
I’ve always had a great curiosity for what other parts of the world are like, but exploring that curiosity in the visually exciting environment of Encarta is much, much more fun than any illustrated flat paper book ever could be.
Multimedia Cafe Scorecard
| Product: |
Microsoft Encarta 96 World Atlas |
| Company: |
Microsoft Corporation
|
| Cost: |
$49.99 |
System Requirements:
Multimedia PC or compatible with a 486DX33 or
higher processor, 8 MB of RAM (12 MB of RAM for Windows NT), 7 MB of
hard disk drive space, Double-speed CD-ROM drive, Super VGA 256-color
monitor, a sound card, Microsoft mouse or compatible pointing device,
headphones or speakers
Breakdown:
Entertainment Value 4
Educational Value 5
Concept 5
Depth 5
Interface 5
Overall Score:
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