Why I buy this one ?
- 3 Encyclopedias in One: Elementary, Student, and Adult
- 100,000+ Articles
- New! Virtual Notecards allow you to make notes around what you've read and keep track of where you have been
- New! Explore Interactive Articles and Media Tours
- Multimedia content, Atlas, Timelines, Merriam-Webster's Dictionary and Thesaurus

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Price : $11.95 Usually ships in 1-2 business days

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Price : $12.94 Usually ships in 1-2 business days

What our customer's say!

"the text is great; the rest is junk", This is a great encyclopaedia, and it is a fabulous deal to get it cheaply on DVD. While it is not as extensive and up-to-the-minute as Wikipedia, the articles are much better written and more reliable. (I warn my students not to trust anything on Wikipedia.)

The text of the articles on the DVD appears to be identical to that of the printed version; however some of the figures from the printed version appear to be missing from the DVD. (I can't be sure about this because I am comparing with the 2002 printed version.) Unfortunately, the maps on the DVD are of much lower quality than those in the printed version.

The interface for reading the articles is pretty good. It features tabbed browsing, and it gives you whole articles (unlike a previous edition).

In my opinion the multimedia extras are cheesy and not worth the disk space. Maybe children will like them, I don't know. Anyway, get this for the text, not for the extras.

"I Like the New Encyclopedia Brittanica", I won a set of the full printed version during a spelling bee a few years back, but find the DVD version very good (and sure takes up less space). I look forward to its evolution.

"OK, but Encarta is better", Having previously used the computer version of Encarta, I thought I'd try out the computer version of my classic Britannica. Yes, you can type in keywords and pull up resaonably well-written articles. The fun stops there. The articles contain few images: for example, I was looking up various famous people, minerals, and world landmarks, yet was disappointed to find no pictures at all in any of the articles I found. Most disappointingly, Britannica lacks the super-cool 3-D tours of famous world sites and 3-D zoomable and rotatable world atlas that Encarta does so well.

"Quite good", I haven't used it extensively, but seems good for topics I searched. But nothing beats Wikipedia - and ease of use it has - just for sake of authentic material - I bought this product. Thats why only 3 Stars.

"too brief to be useful", I purchased Britannica because my children needed a vetted source for their high school assignments and their teachers would not accept Wikipedia. Unfortunately, Britannica's coverage is too superficial to be of used. The entire product is contained on a single CD. The first topic I looked up was the New Deal; Britannica gave it 674 words; Wikipedia 11,871. I looked up several others; all with similar results. To me, Britannica is no more than a glorified dictionary. At that, Encarta is better.
The product installed and functions without problem on Windows XP SP2.

Read this reviews before You buy...

"No Support for Linux", The Encylopedia Britannica is definitely a "five star" reference source. However, they no longer support Linux and I have to use vmware to use it. Therefore I award only three stars.

"Disasterlad on Britannica", I trust the information I find from Britannica and so invested in the 2007 Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite.

It has something for everyone.

I use it side by side with Microsoft Encarta and together I get a more complete subject review.

I prefer the content of Britannica but for ease of use Encarta is still superior.


I look forward to Britannica making the interface and ease of use better in future productions and that is why I am only able to award 4 stars.

"valuable content, abysmal software", Every time I use it, I find a new bug, performance or usability problem. If it wasn't for the content, I would return it and never bought another edition. I use it only when I have to, because working with it is extremely frustrating.

"Fantastic Content, but annoyed by the install routine", I have always loved the Britannica content, but here are my gripes with the install routine.

(1) You cannot choose which components to install. You either get it all, or nothing. Already got the Merriam-Webster dictionary on your computer? Too bad. Get it again with the Britannica, whether you like it or not. And so on.

(2) If you choose one of the 'lite' install methods, whereby you keep the DVD in the drive for video and picture content (which can save over 2GB of space...) there is NO OPTION to tell the software which drive it looks in for the DVD. I have many optical drives, virtual drives, etc and I have the DVD in drive 'S'. I kept getting the stupid error message 'User action required, Please Insert Data Disc' despite the fact the the DVD was sitting there in the drive (the same drive I installed the product from, incidentally). This is a big problem for me, as I cannot use drive 'D' or 'E' (or whatever they are using as their unchangeable default - it's really amazing that the software would be so stupid).

(3) Once you have chosen your install type, whether 'lite' or 'full', there is NO way to change it afterwards. If you made a 'lite' install and you want to change it to a 'full' install, you have to UNINSTALL the entire product again and start all over. And given that the install takes about 15 minutes, or roughly how long it takes Microsoft Office to install, this is a major pain in the backside. (Note to Britannica developers: Microsoft Office provides LOTS of install options, i.e. which components to install, and you can EASILY change them after installing. Your product should do the same.)

To be honest, for a software package that has been in development since 1998 - only slightly less time than Windows itself - it is truly amazing that it is so incompetent.

"Quality & Quantity trumps Presentation", I was disappointed with the software presentation aspects, especially how it lags considerably behind its competitors like Encarta - the layout is basic and a tad amateurish, the presentation is far from slick, the Atlas has maps that are simple, tiny square & sparse things that you can't zoom into, there is no virtual globe, quality of audio and video entires are soso and the response of the software is slow....but then....I started reading the articles - Feynman mini-bio written by James Gleick, Dickens by GK Chesterton, Relativity by Bergman, Intro to Quantum physics by Brian Greene...and so on...then you realize that this is Britannica, not Wikipedia or Encarta and THAT and THAT ALONE is worth the price of admission (especially if you get this on a deal...;-)..) - points deducted because in this day and age in the 21st century, lack of a whiz-bang slick look&feel to a software product is inexcusable. Also many minor gripes like Updates don't get downloaded and added to the article like Encarta but things that you additionally see, only online and that too only if you register(free) - however - a must-have for knowledge junkies dedicated to quality