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Overall Rating
3 Star Review
Reviewed by: npstuber
Updated:07-15-08
Duration of ownership:30 Days
Strengths: Many Encarta Updates improve the product.
Weaknesses: Microsoft constant changes to the user interface makes usage harder than necessary
Overall Evaluation: Encarta works well enough, but I do not like the installation of the Student interface. I do not like the changes to the Encarta interface and I find it difficult to quickly find the information I want.
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Overall Rating
3 Star Review
Reviewed by: kakes
Updated:04-15-08
Duration of ownership:
Strengths: Attractive, intuitive, responsive interface. Tons of learning tools, reference material. Options for younger and older students. Microsoft Math is great for writing expressions and equations. College admission tools. Helpful prescreened Web links. Languag
Weaknesses: Hard drive hog. Taxes lower-resolution display systems. No Mac OS version.
Overall Evaluation: Microsoft Student wraps a huge trove of information and study tools into an attractive, responsive, and affordable package. The suite's Math Tools, included Encarta Premium encyclopedia, and report help can give any student a useful assist and make learning more fun along the way.
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Overall Rating
4 Star Review
Reviewed by: rchatto
Updated:04-09-08
Duration of ownership:5 Days
Strengths: Useful tool for school/college student
Weaknesses: Navigation is complicated and not very intuitive.
Overall Evaluation: I bought this for my niece, she is in 9th grade. According to her it is very useful for assignments and homeworks, little hard to get used to the navigation at the beginning. This product is thoughtfully designed for the student althought it comes with entire Encarta encyclopedia. I personally found the search feature is a little tedious (after you get used to Google search) but works. overall it is a good product.
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Overall Rating
4 Star Review
Reviewed by: lape42
Updated:03-30-08
Duration of ownership:
Strengths: Complete encyclopedia with many photos videos and sound clips
Weaknesses: None
Overall Evaluation: This program was a great value with rebate and savings. With new updated information the encyclopedia works great and is east to use. Still have not used the homework assistant and math programs.
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Overall Rating
5 Star Review
Reviewed by: jonath24
Updated:12-14-07
Duration of ownership:3 Days
Strengths: Has a kid area for < 7 years old; Dictionary with pronunciation; language translation; equation solver and grapher; detailed global maps
Weaknesses: a bit slow in my Celeron notebook (not complaining, fully expected performance given a Celeron)
Overall Evaluation: This is the first time that I bought and used an electronic encyclopedia. Before the purchase, I had debated about Encrata versus Britannica. I read a few reviews that generally like the interface of Encrata and its detailed maps. Upon the first firing up of the software, I was surprised to see a dictionary with pronunciation, language translator, equation solver and grapher and an interactive globe map.There is also the Encrata for kids younger than 7 years old. It has some fun activities that are pretty attractive to kids, e.g. a human organ puzzle.The interactive globe is pretty amazing. It allows you to rotate the globe in any direction you like and view the globe from any direction. It also allows you to measure distance between any 2 points on the globe. When doing so, Encrata will show the connecting line between the 2 points as a curve, reminding you that the shortest line between the 2 points is not necessary a stright line as viewed on the 2-D globe on the screen.I fully expected a dictionary would come with Encrata, but did not expect it has pronunciation. I have other electronic dictionaries that have pronunciation, but it is always good to have another one in case some words are missing in one dictionary.The equation solver is amazing too. I tried to solve x^3 - 2x^2 + 10 = 0. Surely I expected Encrata to solve it, but what I did not expect is that Encrata also showed me the numerical formula (e.g. x = sqrt(23) / 13, of course, this is not the solution) of the solution. This left me puzzled until today because as far as I know, cubic equation is solved by iteration. I don't know there is a close form solution like the solutions of a quadratic equation (updated 12/18/07: obviously, my maths is not good. Cubic equation does have close form solutions). The equation grapher is nice too, although you can graph any equation in Excel manually too. But the nice thing is that you can print out the graph and the equation in a nice manner.Overall, I am satisfied with my first electronic encyclopedia for $30. Some may argue that you could find almost anything in the web, especially Wikipedia nowadays. But as most of you know, there is no quality control there. The Internet has also degraded since its earlier days. Very few web sites contains good information nowadays. The Internet has become an advertisement jungle. Any words that you search will flood you with annoying advertisements. Your kids will benefit greatly by unplugging the Internet and doing some serious study with this.
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Overall Rating
5 Star Review
Reviewed by: IbarraYJ
Updated:12-09-07
Duration of ownership:5 Days
Strengths: Easy to use menus and alot of great updates! Added student tools like math helper.
Weaknesses: None that I can think of.
Overall Evaluation: I wish I had this software while I was going to school. Encarta 2008 has a lot of new updates and you can download more articles online. There is even a Math tool which allows you to plug in equations and it'll solve them for you and show you the break-down. I think Encarta is the best encyclopedia software out there and I'd recommend it for everyone.
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Overall Rating
4 Star Review
Reviewed by: garylane
Updated:12-05-07
Duration of ownership:10 Days
Strengths: Excellent package of information and tools
Weaknesses: slows computer, needs much space, even when use dvd, and causes start up of dictionary program each type you reboot, with terrible microsoft support having no solution.
Overall Evaluation: I love the information available and the broad range of tools provided to help my high school aged son. However, it is a drain on the system and causes the dictionary tool to start up each time the system reboots. Microsoft offers only overseas support which provided absolutely no help after 5 emails!
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Overall Rating
5 Star Review
Reviewed by: gothummingbird
Updated:10-21-07
Duration of ownership:
Strengths: The dictionary has sound, I was suprised, the kids section came in handy for my teenagers AP world history class homework, also the software has had no problems running on old machine with XP.
Weaknesses: None that I can think of except it is a renewable subscription each year to keep it updated.
Overall Evaluation: I was comparing this with Britannica. I thought it the far better deal and from what I heard better software so I bought it before I bought the Britannica Software and website subscription. Can't have too much information!
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Overall Rating
5 Star Review
Reviewed by: abc27400
Updated:09-22-07
Duration of ownership:3 Weeks
Strengths: Great interface, easy to use, wide variety of material for viewing, different types of materials (e.g. charts, audio segments, video clips), online access for learning abroad, great Math tool.
Weaknesses: Needs more links on encyclopedia articles, more videos, better and more integration into Microsoft Office Products.
Overall Evaluation: This product is a complete research solution for everyone. From students in Elementary and High School to College students, and those just wanting to learn and explore. This is an awesome tool to use for reports and presentations. I wish, though, there was better integration of audio and video into Microsoft Office. Nevertheless, this is an awesome product and worth the money.
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Overall Rating
4 Star Review
Reviewed by: MikeySoft
Updated:09-11-07
Duration of ownership:3 Days
Strengths: Lots of information
Weaknesses: Dictionary cannot be installed as a standalone.
Overall Evaluation: I'm an awful speller. Spelling check in MS Word does not always help because sometime I pick the wrong word. I have been using MS Bookshelf 1996 for a long time. I reinstall the CD over the years as I got new computers. Both Bookshelf and Student With Encarta Premium 2008 have dictionaries which gives you both the meaning and an audio on the words you are looking up. Very useful for me..I got the Encarta Premium because it was very inexpensive after the rebates and I felt it was about time to replace my bookshelf 96. Encarta comes on a DVD and you can install just the frame work or the total DVD. The dvd needs to be in your drive when you only install the frame work. Everything is linked together. You can click on a word in the dictionary at it will take you to the encyclopedia. .Unfortunately, it does not allow you to install the dictionary as a standalone..Student With Encarta Premium 2008 has many good feature as you can read in the produce description. However, it was not what I was looking for. I gave a 4 star rating even when I would not buy it again because I think it will be very useful for others.
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Microsoft Student With Encarta Premium 2008 (Full Product)
$24.49 •
•Specs
