/ 8 January 1999

So who wins the battle?

Point for point, the two measure up, but the raw statistics are deceptive. What should be clear is that we are not really comparing like with like. Britannica is a text-based leviathan, a mass of information, some of it rather long in the tooth, sometimes too detailed, but often impressive in its scope, though making only limited use of multimedia.

Encarta is sometimes exposed in terms of text, but offers much more effective multimedia treatment and is a more exciting learning tool. Its article screen is better laid out, there is much more tabulation of information, and the quality of printouts is better. So, even if in terms of information it’s a close-run thing, in terms of presentation Encarta is well on top.

Both have atlases. Encarta’s maps are better laid out, and have pictures and sounds. We checked out Iran and got lots of photographs and a blast of indigenous music. There are tools to home in on particular areas and check out aspects such as population density.

Encarta offers Chambers English Dictionary, French and German dictionaries, a book of quotations and a Roget’s Thesaurus on one disc.

Of the two, Encarta is clearly better value. While the depth and quality of information in its encyclopaedia is in some areas inferior to Britannica, it is easier to use and is more culturally tuned in than Britannica, which seems to be lagging in terms of updating information and adding entries on popular culture.

Britannica has some terrific entries, is stronger on history and in the more traditional cultural areas, but it still feels like a book, a great storehouse of information, transferred to computer. If you insisted on the depth of information in Britannica, you would do better to invest in the standard edition, which gives all the facts and opinions, but not the rather limited multimedia.

So you can have Britannica’s accumulated wisdom or Encarta’s energy. For children, we reckon there is no contest: itEhas to be Encarta. Adults who want greater depth and sophistication of information, and aren’t hung up on panoramics of space, may prefer Britannica. But it must start to think about presentation and the role of multimedia if it is to challenge the might of Microsoft.