Encyclopedia Britannica Deluxe 2008 [OLD VERSION]

List Price: $29.95 Discount Price: $16.95

Features:

• 84,000+ articles, atlas, timelines, Merriam-Webster's Dictionary & Thesaurus, 166,000+ magazine articles and Web links
• Merriam-Webster's Dictionary & Thesaurus, Atlas & Timelines
• Includes Six-Month Subscription to Britannica Online ($35 Value)
• Save articles, images, video, and more in one convenient location with Britannica Workspace
• Interactive tools including video and audio clips, and interactive tours

Customer Reviews:

Encyclopedia Britanica software [Posted on 2007-11-24]
Very easy to use, useful product, takes a long time to fully install, does not list all information, as encyclopedia. Some of the simplest items that should be listed are not. Software needs a Codec to operate which is not on the disk, should be included, have to down load codec from Apple Software and the manually place it witin the corect foder on harddrive in order to access the videos, onsoftware. This is a real downside.

Another Unfortunate Version [Posted on 2008-01-13]
I really wanted to like this product, but it's broken out of the box. Apparently the video problem involves some kind of codec, but Britannica seems to have no clue. First, you have to download a patch to keep the software from looking for a specific version of Quicktime, apparently the one installed by Britannica. One has to wonder why they would (1) even install a version of Quicktime when it's available on the web, and (2) program the product to look for a specific version, when software versions change constantly. Even after installing this patch, however, the product STILL does not work. Now, instead of enjoying all the features of my brand new product, I will get to deal with support personnel and hope that they can solve the problem. If, in fact, it is a missing codec, why in the world is this problem not addressed on the Britannica support site?

Another potential drawback to this software is the advertised FREE subscription to Encyclopedia Britannica Online. This is offered as a one-year "trial" that requires a credit card to activate. At the end of the year, if you do not cancel, your credit card will be charged $49.95 for the next year. So, if you decided that you did not like the product and forgot about it after you uninstalled, you would suddenly find a $49.95 charge on your credit card. I really don't need the hassle of trying to get a refund on something I may not even remember signing up for. In my opinion, this offer is not "free."

All-in-all this is an unnecessarily amateurish effort from a company that should be capable of much more. I cannot recommend purchasing Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite.

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED [Posted on 2008-04-03]
I realize that my review is not about this product, but I think it is relevant to potential purchasers of Avanquest products. I do not know anything about this particular program, but have had considerable difficulty with Avanquest as detailed below.

I purchased My Ultimate Organizer 7.0 via download and subsequent key.

I am not making this up - the product displayed a message in Serbo-Croatian telling me the key had expired.

Four hours later with Technical Support and the problem is still not resolved (despite erasing the program, reinstalling, trying different keys, searching the Windows Registry, etc). It takes a full hour on hold to get a technical support representative and at the conclusion of the last session, I was told to contact Customer Service for a CD copy in the hopes that that would resolve the issue. Now Customer Service tells me Technical Support must send me the copy, although Technical Support says otherwise. I am out $30 for a program that is at this point, totally useless, and left adrift by Avanquest who has my money and refuses to help me.

I would purchase Avanquest products with extreme caution. If you have a Technical Support issue, you will have to wait a minimum of 60 minutes on hold (no 800 number), and then get fairly substandard service after that.

Service one can trust !! [Posted on 2008-04-21]
Having to do research and working offline at times, it is products like Encyclopedias and other items like it that one can rely on Amazon for quality and prompt delivery.

Regards

Wayde
for

Sharmin Maraj

Encyclopedia Britannica Deluxe 2008 [Posted on 2008-06-01]
This is a nice program to have for school projects. The only problem I had was viewing video files. I have Vista Operating System and after doing some research had to download a patch in order to view the videos. My 10-year old daughter can search and find anything she's looking for easily without any help from an adult.

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