Encarta Encyclopedia Standard 2001

Installation and online registration are easy and fast; you will be searching and browsing in well under an hour. The presentation, loosely based on Internet Explorer-style Web pages with a strong nod to ink-and-paper traditions of readability and linearity, is uniquely lovely without being distracting. Nearly 40,000 articles are updated online each month (high-speed connections are essential for these), and more than 10,000 images and multimedia clips expand the well-researched text. Cross-references are easy to find and track, and thousands of World Wide Web links to official historical and governmental sites (among others) afford even greater depth.

Though it may not include the advanced materials of the Deluxe version or the Encarta Reference Suite's raft of collateral, the Encyclopedia Standard stands strong on its own. Using it to write a report or fill in information gaps is painless; generally it is easy to find what you want by typing in a few keywords and clicking a few links. It's like installing a reference librarian on your desktop. --Rob Lightner