REDMOND, Wash., Aug. 24, 1999 — If history could express itself, it would use more than just lifeless words and photos on a black and white page. People from the past would leap from the pages to tell their stories. If an atlas could talk, it would come alive, revealing rich cultures and making a place not just a point on a map, but someone’s home. And if people of all countries and cultures could understand the nuances of each other’s languages, then miscommunication might be a thing of the past.
Welcome to the world of the Microsoft® Encarta® multimedia encyclopedia. Scheduled to be available Aug. 27 in stores nationwide, Microsoft Encarta Reference Suite 2000 delivers history, science, the arts, geography, the English language and more in four indispensable resources. Encarta Reference Suite 2000 includes two of the world’s most popular reference products, Encarta Encyclopedia Deluxe 2000 and Encarta Interactive World Atlas, formerly Encarta Virtual Globe. This year, two other outstanding programs join the suite, Encarta World English Dictionary, the first U.S. dictionary that captures global English and was created using Internet and computer technologies, and Encarta Online Deluxe, the encyclopedia’s premium online version.
“Learning today is different. Students are surrounded by a wealth of information, especially in a technological sense. Encarta Reference Suite aggregates this information, providing users with a starting point from which they can then synthesize and analyze the information that is important to them at home and in school,”
said Mark Young, Microsoft group product manager, Learning Business Unit.
Encarta World English Dictionary
Unsure of the nuances of the word
“boot”
in an e-mail from your colleague in England? Encarta World English Dictionary helps eliminate miscommunication by capturing the differences in English as it’s spoken around the world, with clear definitions written in everyday language. More than 320 expert editors and consultants from more than 20 English-speaking countries used e-mail to compile some 400,000 authoritative references in the easy-to-use dictionary.
The dictionary also includes five additional references: Encarta Book of Quotations, The Original Roget’s Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases, The Encarta 2000 Almanac, Microsoft Press® Computer and Internet Dictionary, and Encarta Manual of Style and Usage.
Encarta Encyclopedia Deluxe
Know a high schooler who needs to research a topic for debate class, such as the bombing of Hiroshima? Using Encarta Encyclopedia Deluxe 2000, students can search among more than 42,000 articles, over 19,000 Web Links, nearly 20,000 images, video and audio clips, and much more. This year, several new features give students, parents and educators an edge with schoolwork. For instance, the new Curriculum Guide lets users choose a grade level and subject and see a list of relevant information in Encarta. In addition, the Point/Counterpoint collection – part of the popular Sidebar feature – presents differing views on such controversial topics as gun control, the Hiroshima bombing and the death penalty.
Other new Encarta Encyclopedia Deluxe 2000 features include a Dynamic Timeline that allows users to compare and contrast history across time, place and subject matter, and the addition of Collier’s Archives, more than 10,000 articles from 1960 to 1998 that detail the history of the late 20th century. A single mouse-click takes users to the free* Encarta Yearbook, which provides monthly online updates that can be downloaded and integrated into the encyclopedia, thus ensuring that Encarta Encyclopedia Deluxe is always up to date.
Encarta Interactive World Atlas
Where is Nepal in relation to China? Encarta Interactive World Atlas will take users to both locations on a dynamic map and introduce their rich cultures – or whisk them to any of 1.7 million other places around the globe. Eight times more detailed than any print atlas, Encarta Interactive World Atlas integrates maps, text and multimedia content into an invaluable resource for students and travelers exploring the world’s cities, countries and cultures. New customizable map styles added this year are Languages, Religions, and Parks and World Heritage Sites. Other new features include Map Treks, which explain geographic phenomena right on the map; the Multimedia Map, which uses the globe to display images, flags and world music clips; Pushpins, which enable users to create new map points to annotate and customize; reverse highlighting to clearly show the borders of countries and regions; dynamic latitude and longitude lines that help pinpoint locations; and closed captioning.
Free** Encarta Online Deluxe 2000, Yearbook and Educator Materials
With Encarta Reference Suite comes free* access to Encarta Online Deluxe, the premium online version of the encyclopedia, through Dec. 31, 2000. Encarta Online Deluxe is available any time, on any computer with Internet access. It’s part of Encarta Online, http://encarta.MSN.com/ , a collection of rich premium and free* educational resources for students, adults and teachers that also includes Encarta Schoolhouse, Web Links, classroom integration tools, homework help and more.
Pricing and Availability
The Encarta Reference Suite 2000 CD-ROM is $99 before a $35 mail-in rebate*** and runs on the Microsoft Windows® 95, Windows 98 or Windows NT® 4.0 or later operating systems. The DVD version, scheduled to be available Sept. 24, 1999, is $99 before a $35 mail-in rebate***. Encarta World English Dictionary is $39.95 before a $20 mail-in rebate***; Encarta Encyclopedia is $39 before a $25 mail-in rebate***; Encarta Encyclopedia Deluxe is $69.95 before a $30 mail-in rebate***; and Encarta Interactive World Atlas is $54 before a $20 mail-in rebate***. Encarta Online Deluxe is $49.95 per year, can be accessed through most Internet connections and runs on the same versions of Windows listed above.
Microsoft’s Learning Business Unit designs a line of award-winning multimedia reference products that unleash the educational power of the PC. The complete Encarta line includes the above products, in the Encarta Reference Suite and individually, as well as Encarta
Africana 2000, a comprehensive multimedia encyclopedia focusing on the history and culture of people of African descent around the world, scheduled to be released later this year.
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq
“MSFT”
) is the worldwide leader in software for personal computers. The company offers a wide range of products and services for business and personal use, each designed with the mission of making it easier and more enjoyable for people to take advantage of the full power of personal computing every day.
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