1999 World Book Family Reference Suite DVD

Description:

The 1999 World Book Family Reference Suite combines the multimedia version of the World Book Encyclopedia with Information Please almanacs, Merriam-Webster dictionaries and IBM ViaVoice technology. A headset with a microphone is provided for ViaVoice.

World Book 1999 can be opened with or without Via Voice enabled. It has a nice variety of ways to get at information. Start with Browse - 'Just Looking'. Look through contents by category (like Social Science) and scan all contents or focus in on sections like pictures, articles or timelines. I found the Abominable Snowman and then followed links to Bigfoot and Mount Everest. I liked the capability to pick out a bunch of items, see captions on the screen, then look at the details in any order. Another nice feature is the ability to drag words from the text and drop them into the search engine.

Want to have fun while Just Looking? Select Random and see what captions come up, then look at details of any that are of interest. The monthly Spotlight presents interesting material each month, for example Spain for August. I listened to Fandango music and then looked at a set of Spanish phrases and their meanings. Spotlight also gives tips on use of the World Book.

In Around the World, click on an area in a world map or search for a specific place. Zoom in until the level of detail is right and read a related article on that place. Similarly Time Frame lets you start at a very high level, focus in on a specific century or decade, and then follow the links to information of interest. What's Online connects through the Internet to an Updating Service to keep current (free for one year), and to various web sites. Search works on all the topic areas, maps, dictionary, time frame and online information.

Opening the World Book with Via Voice enabled, lets you speak voice commands - 'What can I say?' brings up a list on the screen. Commands were recognized well, although I kept forgetting what they were and had to keep asking what I could say! I also found their use cumbersome. The first response to 'What can I say?' took 30 seconds or so, though subsequent ones were fast. You need to keep checking that the microphone is on as well and say 'Wake up' if not!

Getting Via Voice to read an article to me was sometimes difficult. It often said that it could not find selected text. I tried to dictate a Sticky Note and saw 'last coach to back' when I said 'let's go to Tibet'. There is a way to make corrections, but the speech recognition feature needed a lot of training for my voice. Subsequently I spent about a half hour going through the full enrollment process. This trains the speech recognition software to do a better job on your particular voice. It still misunderstood much of what I said and kept 'hearing' the command 'Start typing' as 'Start reading'.

CyberSafari lets you move with your mouse around 360-degree views of different animal habitats at the San Diego Zoo. Learn about the giant panda, gorilla, polar bear and many more. Listen to the sounds the animals make and learn fun facts about them.

There are 5 Homework Wizards that lead you through researching and writing reports, different types of charts, preparing a timeline, developing and taking various kinds of quizzes, and producing up to 3 linked web pages. The Report Wizard has 12 steps, including scheduling the different tasks and picking the right approach. The Chart Wizard explains the uses of several different types of charts.

Features:

• Includes all articles from the hard copy World Book
• 5 Merriam-Webster dictionaries and encyclopedia
• 3 Information Please almanacs
• Thousands of videos, maps, photos, and sounds
• Virtual reality presentations, simulations, animations
• Graphical timelines of history
• Distance calculator for maps
• Highlighter and Sticky Notes
• Homework Wizards for assignment help
• Cyber Safari tours
• Updating Service (free for 1 year)
• Ability to speak commands and notes
• Program can read content to you

Technical Aspects:

During installation a message came up indicating a problem with playback of videos and suggesting updating drivers - this was on a Dell Dimension XPS R400, but with a DVD driver purchased separately. When I tried to use the online service, there was a message 'Registering with World Book Internet Server' followed by a long delay. After several minutes I gave up.

The connections and testing setup for ViaVoice was handled by an excellent Wizard. I had difficulty with the speech recognition, even after going through the full enrollment process, and sometimes with the text to speech. My husband also tried on another computer and had similar problems.

I e-mailed Technical Support about a couple of these problems and they replied promptly and tried to help.

Report and Conclusions:

There is a lot here! Encyclopedia content compares favorably with other reference software. I especially liked the ability to pick out research items in a fairly disorganized manner and then organize and investigate further using captions laid out on the screen. Sticky notes and Highlighters are also very useful features. Random and Spotlight are fun for browsing.

Although I enjoyed playing with Via Voice, I did not find it particularly useful. I prefer to use the mouse for commands. However I will keep trying to train the software to recognize my voice, as I would find spoken Sticky Notes useful. The effort required is probably only worthwhile for someone who plans to do a great deal of dictating. Text to speech was in the usual Hal-like computer voice. I can read much faster than listen, and would only enjoy having the computer read to me if it could do so in a natural voice.

The capabilities of World Book that support research impressed me most, and I plan to use them. I love the concept of the Homework Wizards, and expect the Report, Chart and Timeline Wizards to be very useful to my kids in the next few years! Although the Web page Wizard produces a simple result, it is perfect for kids who want to put together some web pages quickly on a favorite topic.

Overall, this is an impressive piece of software with excellent information content and support for research and reports. But don't expect too much from the ViaVoice technology - it's just not there yet!