REDMOND, Wash., Sept. 9, 1996 — Yikes! You’ve got to become an expert on the conflict between the Tutsi and Hutu peoples of Africa – in less than one week. Where do you begin?
Show your smarts by using the 1997 releases of the Microsoft® Encarta® multimedia reference line – Encarta Encyclopedia; Encarta Encyclopedia, Deluxe Edition; and Encarta World Atlas. They
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ll open doors to dynamic, comprehensive and current information to help you understand and report on almost any aspect of the world we live in – even if it
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s far from your neighborhood.
By using the 1997 Encarta multimedia reference line, you
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ll put your computer to work as never before. Encarta integrates leading-edge online technology, giving Internet users easy, guided access to the growing mass of information on the Internet. You can be confident that your search will take you to current, relevant information, selected to meet the highest editorial standards. Just click Web Links to jump from Encarta to high-quality content on the Web. With the unique multimedia features found in any Encarta product, the subject you
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re studying will dynamically come alive on your computer.
“The Encarta line has always been recognized as applying the latest technologies to the multimedia reference category, and this year is no exception,”
said Craig Bartholomew, general manager of the reference business unit at Microsoft.
“Every year we continue to invest in adding deeper and broader levels of content into Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia. We continue to stress the multimedia, indexing and searching advantages of the computer. And we’re especially excited to introduce the Encarta Encyclopedia, Deluxe Edition, which gives users even more fascinating resources to explore their chosen topic as well as well-integrated online technology, such as Web Links, to extend their research. With Encarta Encyclopedia, students, teachers, librarians and other inquiring minds can easily find information they seek or simply browse around and learn via the CD-ROM or via the World Wide Web.”
Encarta Encyclopedia: Two Versions
Encarta Encyclopedia now comes in two versions: the award-winning Encarta 97 Encyclopedia on a single compact disc, and the new two-CD Encarta 97 Encyclopedia, Deluxe Edition. Each version contains more than 31,000 articles – 6,000 new or updated for this edition – as well as thousands of multimedia items, including photos, sounds, charts and tables, maps, and animations. Even with this mass of content, the intuitive, inviting design of Encarta makes it quicker and easier than ever to find what you
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re looking for.
Encarta 97 Encyclopedia , Deluxe Edition
By expanding to two compact discs, the new Deluxe Edition lets you experience almost twice as much multimedia content as the single-CD version, enjoy exclusive interactive features, explore extensive links to the Internet, and receive 18 months of free online updates of the Encarta Yearbook and Web Links (online connection fees may apply).
To deliver the expanded multimedia with the ease of using a single CD, Microsoft invested extensive research and testing to minimize the need for disc swapping when using the two-disc Deluxe Edition. All fully searchable text appears on both discs, and media content is organized by topic and activity; this design reduces the need to change discs during a search.
In addition to the updated text, which includes more than 1.5 million additional words (not including the Yearbook Updates), the Deluxe Edition has almost double the amount of multimedia content. Included are 14,000 photos and illustrations, more than 2,300 audio clips, 970 maps, and 150 videos and animations – quite a treasure trove from which to enrich your research! You can start your investigation of the Tutsi and Hutu peoples by exploring articles and maps of Central East Africa to discover the history and struggles of these people.
The Deluxe Edition also offers extensive, built-in online functionality. It includes more than 5,000 preinstalled Web Links, seamlessly integrating Encarta Encyclopedia articles with sites on the World Wide Web. Web Links make it easy for Internet users to find more in-depth, specific and current information on thousands of topics. They also help you pursue a broader exploration of a topic by facilitating the connection to an initial Web site, which can serve as a jumping-off point to related sites. All Encarta Web sites, selected by a team of Encarta editors, are well-researched and up-to-date. Web Links help you search for information more efficiently and steer you toward sites chosen for their high-quality reference content. Parents will appreciate the safe, guided Internet access from within Encarta when their children use Encarta for school projects.
The new Deluxe Edition also offers 50 Encarta Yearbook articles per month, with a focus on feature articles. These updates automatically link to the encyclopedia article to add more in-depth information and analysis of topics and to keep your encyclopedia continuously current. If you look up
“Burundi”
in Encarta Encyclopedia, you will be linked to a Yearbook update that discusses the July 25, 1996, coup that deposed Hutu leader Sylvestre Ntibantunganya and reinstalled the Tutsi President Major Pierre Buyoya. These and other Yearbook articles are reviewed by a newly established Encarta Editorial Advisory Board, which includes distinguished scholars such as anthropologist Don Johansen. Board members review each article to help ensure the accuracy and quality of its content.
An exciting new multimedia feature exclusive to the Deluxe Edition is 360 Views. This new experiential medium places you at the center of a panoramic photograph. From this stationary point, you can
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turn
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completely around and see in all directions. It is a fully interactive experience that lets you control your movement to get a true sensation of being on location. The Deluxe Edition provides 30 different 360 Views, including the ruins of Rievaulx Abbey in England, New York City
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s Times Square, the Palace of Versailles in France, and China
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s Limestone Pinnacles.
Also new to the Deluxe Edition are multimedia Collages, interactive presentations on 20 topics ranging from biodiversity and communications technology to the modern Olympics. Each collage is a visual map of a compelling subset of Encarta Encyclopedia content, giving you the ease of one-stop access as well as an intelligent context in which to understand the topic. From the Collage, you can link to related Encarta articles and media for an in-depth view of the topic. For your research on the Tutsi people, you might want check out the Collages on migration and explorers.
With these experiential media as well as authoritative text, dynamic visual elements and advanced online functionality, Encarta Encyclopedia encourages you to explore and discover. For kids, the fun activities and images in Encarta engage the imagination and stimulate the desire to learn.
Encarta 97 Encyclopedia Deluxe School Edition is an excellent resource for kids at school or in the library. A welcome addition to any reference collection, the Deluxe School Edition is used by students for homework fact-finding, for browsing for in-depth studies, and as an access point to learning beyond the CD-ROM. Educators find that Encarta is a powerful learning tool that helps students of all ages develop the skills they need to become lifelong learners and develop a passion for knowledge.
“Encarta Encyclopedia is our students’ first stop for research,”
said Janet Miller, media specialist for Lincoln Elementary School in Oak Park, Ill.
“The interactive exploration stimulates our students’ curiosity, encourages them to fully explore their research topics, and leads them to new discoveries.”
Encarta 97 Encyclopedia
In addition to the content it shares with the Deluxe Edition, the single-disc version of Encarta 97 Encyclopedia has 7,700 photos and illustrations, 35 videos, 9.5 hours of audio clips, and over 2,000 preinstalled Web Links. With this single-CD version, you may subscribe to receive monthly online updates of Web Links and Encarta Yearbook, at a cost of $19.95 for 18 installments (requires Internet access).
Encarta 97 World Atlas
Companion to the award-winning Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia, Encarta World Atlas is an engaging and comprehensive world atlas designed for adults and families. Guided by an advisory board of 12 distinguished geographers, it is one of today
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s most realistic geographical references. This year
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s edition, the second release, provides high-quality and accurately detailed maps, advanced rendering technology, and an enhanced user interface.
Encarta 97 World Atlas is the most comprehensive world atlas available in any medium. It includes 1.2 million places, which is twice the detail of the best print atlas. And thanks to new mapping techniques, the maps of these places are rendered in a highly professional, cartographic style that rivals the most readable print maps in visual appeal while delivering flexibility and speed unknown with paper atlases.
The new edition of World Atlas also features a Web Links button, providing direct, easy-to-find links between places on the map and sites on the World Wide Web. More than 8,000 Web Links are embedded in Encarta 97 World Atlas articles. By accessing these Web sites, Internet users can find up-to-date information on cities, states, countries and places around the world. For your report, you can learn about the Tutsi and Hutu civil war by visiting Web sites such as Burundi: Breaking the Cycle of Violence, Rwanda: Special Report or AfricaNews Online.
With more than 2 million words, 3,000 images, 2,800 foreign language pronunciations and 350 world music selections, Encarta 97 World Atlas vividly brings to life the world behind the map. You can even listen to popular music of Rwanda and the
“Whispering Song”
from Burundi.
The Encarta 97 World Atlas user interface is now even more intuitive and more visually appealing. The new interface makes it faster and easier to view maps, navigate through them, and access the content associated with them. The new fast search engine in Encarta World Atlas helps you find virtually any geographic entity with just a mouse click, so searching for places is quick and fun.
Encarta 97 World Atlas offers 14 new map styles that allow you to view the world the way you want to. You can choose to see the Earth from space, explore maps of climate conditions, or choose from among more traditional maps showing political boundaries or time zones. Why not finish your report with a satellite or population map?
Pricing and Availability
The new Encarta releases are scheduled to be available in stores now for approximately the following prices: Microsoft Encarta 97 Encyclopedia, Deluxe Edition, $79.95; Microsoft Encarta 97 Encyclopedia, $54.95; and Microsoft Encarta 97 World Atlas, $54.95. The School Edition of Encarta 97 Encyclopedia Deluxe Edition can be obtained for approximately $69.95 and includes a Teacher’s Activity Guide, which contains tips for using Encarta in the classroom and reproducible pages of activities built around nine major school subjects.
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