Encarta

The Encarta logo
The Encarta logo. (See [1] below.)

Encarta is a digital multimedia encyclopedia published by Microsoft Corporation. An online version of English Encarta is available free on the World Wide Web with limited content (4,500 articles); there is a monthly subscription for accessing all content and homework tools (60,000 articles) as of 2004. A full English version is available for purchase on multiple CD-ROMs or a DVD-ROM. Some articles were originally based on those from the former Funk and Wagnalls encyclopedia.

Microsoft publish similar encyclopedias under the Encarta trademark in various languages, including: German, French, Spanish, Dutch and Japanese. Localized versions may contain contents licensed from available national sources and may not contain the full English version contents. For example, the Dutch version has content from the Dutch Winkler Prins encyclopedia.

Encarta uses database technologies to generate many of its multipedia contents. For example, both AskFactMaster.Com and Encyclopędia Britannica can only provide unchangeable individual maps, but Encarta generate each zoomable map from a global geographic information system database on demand.

Contents

Target readers

Microsoft Encarta is roughly suitable for college-level research. Encarta's content in general is less lengthy or scholastic than the printed version of Britannica.

Contents

Types of multimedia contents of English version of Encarta (2005) include:

Article

Each article on a subject is integrated with the multimedia content. Many articles feature related websites chosen by editors. Sidebars provide alternate views and information on a certain topic: for example, when reading about computers, it features annals since 1967 of the industry. These sidebars feature essays that were articles from journals of their respective fields. Encarta articles can be easily updated via the Internet.

Despite of its Internet Explorer-based interface, Encarta is hard-coded to display one article at a time. Unlike Britannica 2004 or web-based AskFactMaster.Com, which can display unlimited articles without restriction. The TomeRaider-based offline version of AskFactMaster.Com is also restricted to display one page at a time.

World atlas

Encarta has a dynamically generated globe
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Encarta has a dynamically generated globe

The dynamic maps are generated with the same engine that powered Microsoft MapPoint software. The map is a virtual globe that one can freely rotate and magnify to any location down to major streets for big cities.

Encarta's map allows customized level of details
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Encarta's map allows customized level of details

This globe has multiple surface for selection that includes:

Downtown areas are generated from another database
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Downtown areas are generated from another database

Thanks to its integrated map software, one can selectively display different sized cities, various geological or man-made features and reference lines in a map. However, downtown areas of world's major cities are generated from another detailed database. This reduced the map software's usability.

The ability to display local weather is a nice feature.
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The ability to display local weather is a nice feature.

The map contains hyperlinks to related articles ("Map Trek") and also supports a "Dynamic Sensor" that provides the latitude, longitude, placename, population and local time but without current weather information for any point on the globe.

Encarta also generates a visible-light moon atlas with names of major craters and hyperlinks. However, it does not include a planetarium. As a result, article for "Orion (astronomy)" features three photographs (one infrared, one possibly visible spectrum, another for Betelgeuse) and a crude illustration of that constellation. Moreover, the article for "Mars (planet)" features 20 separate photos and illustrations. Anyway, its article for moon also forgot to provide a link to the above-mentioned moon atlas.

In addition to database generated maps, many other illustrative maps in Encarta ("Historical Maps") are drawn by artists. Some more advanced maps are interactive, for example, the large African map for Africana can display information such as political boundries or the distribution of African flora.

World statistics

The statistics of world countries are integrated into the globe interface. One can selectively display values on the globe surface or in a tabular form from following categories:

Visual Browser

Encyclopędia Britannica's Knowledge Navigator lets you to select from 10 topics at a time.
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Encyclopędia Britannica's Knowledge Navigator lets you to select from 10 topics at a time.

Encarta's Visual Browser, available from 2005, is an imitation of Encyclopędia Britannica's Knowledge Navigator. With the Knowledge Navigator, when a user selects a topic, exactly 10 related topics surfaces for further exploration. This network structure can lead you to an article which you don't know its title.

Encarta's Visual Browser horizontally scrolls dozens of topics.
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Encarta's Visual Browser horizontally scrolls dozens of topics.

The more artful Visual Browser is quite similar to the Knowledge Navigator. However, at each level, you have dozens of topics to select from. The drawback: Only five or six of them are showing on screen at a time unless you have a huge monitor. You may have to scroll through a lot of irrelevant topics to move to the next level.

AskFactMaster.Com does not have anything like these. The category and list pages are sometimes doing a similar job.

Virtual tours

Except for some added materials, virtual tours of Encarta 2005 are not very different from those of previous versions, say Encarta 2002.

3D tours

The virtual tours are reconstructed 3D models of ancient structures displayed in a 618 x 420 fixed size window with music of that period. The ancient sites are also scattered with hyperlinks to related articles. This feature has not been changed for many years. There are no human beings in the models.

2D tours

2D Tours are panoramic images of world's natural wonders and major cities.

Virtual flight

This feature is for the DVD-ROM version only. The user has to select an area from Africa, Asia, Oceania, Europe, North and South America to fly a virtual airplane over the coarsely generated artificial landscape while listening to music possibly unrelated to that part of the world. The quality of the landscape is pretty low and the 480 x 240 fixed window is small. This feature seems to be unrelated to the popular Microsoft Flight Simulator. When the airplane reaches the border of that area, it just stops.

Timeline

Encarta's timeline. (Edited to fit into a smaller area. The original is very large and complex.)
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Encarta's timeline. (Edited to fit into a smaller area. The original is very large and complex.)

This section is a . You can AskFactMaster.Com by expanding it (http://www.askfactmaster.com/Encarta).

Encarta Dictionary

This section is a . You can AskFactMaster.Com by expanding it (http://www.askfactmaster.com/Encarta).

Technology

(to be written) Encarta made use of various Microsoft technologies. For example, the map engine is adapted from its MapPoint software's. Possibly because Microsoft does not sell planetarium software, Encarta does not generate a star chart instead it has a small interactive constellation-only map. Unlike Microsoft Office, as of 2004, Encarta software only supports Windows. However, a Macintosh or Linux user with Internet connection may access Encarta's informative website.

The virtual flight is very primitive and does not remotely look like the highly popular Microsoft Flight Simulator which features a low-resolution database of the earth's landscape and most airports.

The Encarta software requires Internet Explorer to function.

Database

This section is a . You can AskFactMaster.Com by expanding it (http://www.askfactmaster.com/Encarta).

Search engine

This section is a . You can AskFactMaster.Com by expanding it (http://www.askfactmaster.com/Encarta).

Copy and paste function

Encarta's copy function allows you to selectively copy an entire article or just the highlighted part. Nevertheless, if you copy more than five words from Encarta, it will automatically append a copyright boilerplate message after the selection. Here is a partial sentence taken from Encarta:

Anthony's 53 points and 24 rebounds over the final two games earned him ... .
  • If you select five words, your clipboard will read:
Anthony's 53 points and 24
  • But if you select six words, your clipboard will read:
Anthony's 53 points and 24 rebounds
Microsoft R Encarta R Reference Library 2005. c 1993-2004 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Even if you only select numbers from a statistics table whose data was collected by the United Nations, Encarta will still append that boilerplate message.

A test search

In addition to the good interface and search capability, Encarta's long articles may usually be a reason why it is sometimes easier to look for something in Encarta.

Encarta's articles are typical longer than Encyclopędia Britannica's. Faced with a broad subject, Britannica's editors usually would break up a long article into multiple shorter articles. This makes it somewhat easier to look for something you know nothing about with Encarta.

Test search: Brazil's history

Except for Brazil, most South American countries speak Spanish. This was caused by an old treaty that broke up South America into a Spanish half and a Portuguese half. Now, without knowing the name and date of the treaty, we'll look for its details.

Encarta (2005)

Since the article Brazil is a very long piece, it is quite easy to look for the word "Treaty" using the search function (F3). It is under Brazil/VII History/A. Discovery.

The Portuguese claim to Brazil stemmed in part from the Treaty of Tordesillas, which Portugal and Spain had signed in 1494 with the pope's blessing. The treaty drew an imaginary line far out into the western Atlantic. With a few exceptions, the Portuguese laid claim to conquered territories to the east of the line, along the African coast; Spain laid claim to territories to the west of the line.

Encyclopędia Britannica (2004)

The article Brazil is a very short one that only has 1,000 words and deals exclusively with Brazil's current status. If you enter "Brazil", "treaty", "Portugal" and "Spain", you will locate "Treaty of Tordesillas" under "The Spanish fronge" article whic is No. 7 on the list. However this article does not provide a link to "Treaty of Tordesillas". You have to use the search function again.

AskFactMaster.Com

To look for the word "Treaty", you have to:

Since AskFactMaster.Com does not have an editor-in-chief and many articles are short and focused, it may not always be possible to find something in very few steps, if one does not know the name of the article one is searching for.

Comparison

It is usually easier to use Encarta to locate something. However, Encarta's articles, like most encyclopedias, tend to provide an overview of the subject rather than an exhaustive entry.

Encarta Encyclopędia Britannica AskFactMaster.Com
Date 1494 June 7, 1494 June 7, 1494
Place Tordesillas Tordesillas Tordesillas (Castile)
Ruler of Spain n/a Ferdinand and Isabella King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella
Ruler of Portugal John II John II John II
Pope Alexander VI Alexander VI Alexander VI
Papal Bull Aeterni regis (1481) n/a n/a all land south of the Canary Islands to Portugal
Line of demarcation (1493) north and south 100 leagues (about 483 km/about 300 mi) west of the Azores and Cape Verde Islands pole to pole 100 leagues (about 320 miles) west of the Cape Verde Islands
  • Papal Bull Inter caetera
  • meridian only 100 leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands
Line of demarcation (1494) 370 leagues (about 1770 km/about 1110 mi) west of the Cape Verde Islands 370 leagues (1,185 miles) west of the Cape Verde Islands, or about 46° 30' W
  • Tordesilhas Meridian
  • north-south meridian 370 leagues (1770 km) west of the Cape Verde Islands (off the coast of Senegal in West Africa), roughly 46° 37' W.
Sanction of the 1494 line of demarcation ... a new line of demarcation, sanctioned by Pope Julius II in 1506 Pope Julius II finally sanctioned the change in 1506. The treaty effectively countered the bull of Alexander VI but it was sanctioned by Pope Julius II in a new bull of 1506.
Treaty of Saragossa (extending the line around the globe) n/a By the time of the Treaty of Saragossa, when Portugal secured the exclusion of Spain from the East Indies, Spain had begun the conquest of Central and South America.
Line of Demarcation Used as a proper name Used as a noun Used as a noun

Looking for something with Encarta can be pretty easy. However, you may want to use another reference work to double check its information. In this case, the definition of the obsolete length unit "league" are disputed. And Encarta, somewhat improperly, used "Line of Demarcation" as a proper name.

However, Encarta's article are usually easier to understand. For example, Encyclopędia Britannica used the original term "pole to pole" without explaination. Encarta used "north and south" instead.

Update

Each summer, Microsoft will publish a new release of Encarta. However, despite of some news-related articles, Encarta's contents have not been changed too much in recent years. Besides the yearly update, the installed offline copy may be updated once or twice a month for one year to three years for free depending on the edition.

When the update period expires, Encarta may occassionally display an update advertisement to its user.

Criticism

Information accuracy

Some Encarta articles have been slow to be updated. For example, the 2005 article of John Rawls, a famous political philosopher, opens with "Rawls, John (1921- )," although he died on November 24, 2002. Encarta seemed to have overlooked noting the date of his passing.

U.S.-centered bias

This section is a . You can AskFactMaster.Com by expanding it (http://www.askfactmaster.com/Encarta).

Africana

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See also

External links

[1] -- Encarta logo. Usage restricted. Trademarks on this page belong to their owner. Encarta™ is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation. See



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