Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite review

Back when we were all in short trousers, only schools and libraries owned copies of the Encylopaedia Britannica - and those would usually be decades out of date.

If someone had said back then that you'd one day be able to buy the complete encyclopedia for less than fifty quid, you'd have thought they were crazy. But it's true.

We don't mean the dusty old print version either. Far better than a stack of old books, the Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite installs on your PC. And it's far easier to use than dusty books. You can search it for keywords and it produces the right results in seconds.

As well as the text, you get lots of videos, audio clips and images. These help to illustrate and bring subjects to life in a way that the text version could only dream about - making the new all-singing, all-dancing multimedia version particularly useful for younger users. Kids will also find the new homework helper useful for getting them started on projects, essays and a range of other school assignments.

As always, however, Britannica's greatest strength is the detailed and comprehensive nature of its articles.

We looked at a random selection of entries and were very impressed with the results. The article on Shakespeare, for instance was a whopping 21,059 words long. As well as covering the playwright's life and works, the article explained how the critical reaction to the writer has changed down the centuries and how it continues to develop - perfect for A-Level students.

As always, however, Britannica isn't as PC-friendly as Encarta. Video and audio clips aren't as well integrated into the articles as they are in the seamless multimedia oasis of Encarta. Presentation is also rather flat and dull. This won't be a problem for adults, students and older pupils who want to get straight to the text. But for kids and teenagers, this could be a problem. You do get Student and Elementary editions of the encyclopedia with this product, but these suffer from a similarly unimaginative use of the PC's multimedia capabilities.

If you already own a recent version of Britannica from the past couple of years, there isn't enough here that's new to make upgrading worth your while.

Get Britannica if you want lots of long, detailed text articles and aren't interested much by accessibility and extensive use of the PC's multimedia capabilities.

Otherwise, especially if you are buying for younger children, we'd recommend Encarta.