From ugly duckling to belle of the ball in the space of seven years; that’s quite an achievement. When Microsoft bought up the Funk and Wagnell print edition and set about creating a multimedia encyclopedia it was pitched against a trio of well established contenders; Encyclopaedia Britannica, World Book and Grolier.

Now, with near saturation sales, 86 per cent, in the secondary market and a healthy 64 per cent in the primary (BESA survey 1998), there’s no doubting that Encarta is the most widely used multimedia reference work in UK schools. And while it would be naive not to recognise the significance of Microsoft’s astute marketing and huge financial resources, there are sound educational reasons for its success.

That’s due, in no small part, to the London-based team at Webster’s who have “localised” and extensively overhauled much of the content. The encyclopedia now contains more than 30,000 articles, many of these augmented by sidebars, and salient items from the archives of The Times. Neither does it skimp on the contemporary or the controversial. If you want to find out what’s at the cutting edge of British art, key “Damien Hirst” into the search box and you’ll be presented with an account of his work and an image of one of his unfortunate bisected bovines.

Jonathan Hulse, Microsoft’s marketing manager for Encarta believes that this year’s offering is the best ever, combining, “the speed and richness of CDDVD with the breadth and currency of the Web”. Recent UK research, conducted by Microsoft, has, he points out, indicated that “a much younger audience is now starting to use Encarta”. Where previously the recommended lower age limit was 10, the company now suggests that Encarta is suitable for students as young as eight. Some, perhaps, but many children at that age would surely have difficulty with the navigation tools and the language. And if there has been one consistent criticism of Encarta from the teaching community it’s that some of the articles have been too complex for younger users.

The multimedia is, as you might expect, superb and includes images, sound and video clips, animations, 360-degree views and interactivities. New this year are 3D virtual tours of historical sites, among them the Acropolis, Beaumaris Castle and the Coliseum. And the Encarta Online edition now offers live streaming video from selected news stations around the world. In the maps section users can view the world using zoom-in views and overlays of historical events such as population migration, settlement and development and, inevitably, wars.

There’s also support for special needs users. Closed captioning is available for audio clips, text can be substantially enlarged and Encarta’s text-to-speech engine enables articles to be read out loud.

Parents and teachers will be pleased to know that the Research Centre contains an impressive array of learning aids. The Researcher tool enables students to collect and collate information from the encyclopedia and assemble a report. Study Resources are a collection of brief guides and tips on how to use resources such as maps and statistics. There is also a Web link to the Encarta Lesson Collection website where parents and teachers can find a range of “classroom-proven strategies for a wide range of subjects.” The curriculum guide section is a very useful way of sifting through appropriate educational material. Users can enter searches for relevant topics at key stage 3, GCSE and A level in the English curriculum. (Separate searches can be undertaken for Scottish and Irish students.) Altogether then, Encarta is an extremely useful tool for both home and school learning, and the editorial team are to be complimented for the fine balancing act that’s been maintained between content and technology. It’s a great shame though that - despite representations from the Apple community - there’s still no Macintosh version.

Encarta comes in a variety of flavours; Reference Library, Deluxe and Standard, with street prices ranging from pound;99.99 for the DVD Reference version to pound;29.99 for the Standard. If cost isn’t a major consideration then opt for the DVD Reference. Not only is all the information stored on one disk, there is additional multimedia, full-screen video and a Virtual Flights simulator gizmo that lets you traverse the virtual globe Superman-style. Now that’s cool!

Encarta Reference Library 2002 DVD version Price: pound;99.99Encarta Reference Library 2002 CD version Price: pound;89.99Encarta Encyclopedia Deluxe 2002 CD version Price: pound;69.99Encarta Encyclopedia Standard 2002 CD version Price: pound;29.99l pound;49.99 cashback to any previous owner of Encarta (including pre-installed copies).

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