REVIEW: CD-ROM - BOOKSHELF 1995 Edition,  Microsoft Home

BOOKSHELF includes eight of the most frequently used reference works on a
single CD-ROM.  These are: The American Heritage Dictionary, Roget's
Thesaurus, Hammond's Intermediate World Atlas, The Concise Columbia
Encyclopedia, The World Almanac & Book of Facts, Columbia Dictionary of
Quotations, The Peoples' Chronology and the National Five-Digit ZIP Code
Directory.  The entries are linked together which allows users to search
the entire reference library in a flash.  

BOOKSHELF has been around since 1987 and has gone through four revisions.
It was the first CD-ROM reference work for Windows.  Microsoft states that
BOOKSHELF is THE most widely owned consumer CD-ROM product on the market.
This edition's new features include Hammond's Atlas and the ZIP Code
Directory.  The other reference works have been updated.  The list of
industry awards BOOKSHELF has garnered is impressive.

Now, what does this all mean to the user?  I found it extremely useful to
be able to access BOOKSHELF directly from my word processor.  The
dictionary and thesaurus are much more comprehensive that their counterpart
integral to my program.  As an illustration, Microsoft WORD has only 44.000
keywords compared to 250,000 words, phrases and expressions in BOOKSHELF.

Also interesting is the multimedia aspect of BOOKSHELF.  Look up a word
in the dictionary and BOOKSHELF will pronounce over 80,000 of them for
you.  The BOOKSHELF Atlas will display 230 flags linked to the country
name, pronounce the name of the country and, if that's not enough. will
allow you to listen to over 180 national anthems.  I'd like to see a
printed reference that will do that.  You can even copy sounds and images
into another program.

You'll need a multimedia system to run BOOKSHELF effectively.  A Macintosh
version is available.  Cost is around $69.00 and if you have a previous
version you can get a $30.00 rebate.  I find it indispensible - I used 
BOOKSHELF six times while writing this review!


(C) 1995
Michael Crestohl
Nahant Massachusetts  USA
mc@shore.net

DISCLAIMER:  I have no interest, financial or otherwise, in the success or 
failure of the book or materials reviewed herewith, nor have I received any 
compensation (other than a review copy requested by me) from anyone who has.  
All opinions expressed are strictly my own.

Other Internet and Aviation book/software reviews by me can be obtained 
by anonymous FTP from:  x2ftp.oulu.fi in the /pub/books/crestohl directory.