Encarta

I will ask you a question: to whom and what do you give your thanks for being in love with science, history, knowledge and different cultures? I would be answering this question at once saying “Encarta!” and after a brief pause I’d add “Dad.”

I think it was the year 2000 or 2001 when my father bought us an attractive black CD saying that its name is Encarta and we should tell no one about us having it in our house. It was not allowed then, by the government, to be owned by normal people (I have no idea why), but my father risked and brought it so we can see how the world defines the different types of knowledge and cultures all around us.

That was the first time to see Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia. It was the 1998 version, I guess; all in English language that I wasn’t really yet to understand. Thus my English started getting better in order to understand how this thing works. It had answers for all my inquiries in a brief yet detailed way. I learned from it the term “Timeline” and have been fascinated by its idea. I fell in love with Rome and Greece because of it, and discovered myself capable of learning languages, even if merely by saying “hi, bye, thank you,” in different languages and knowing that I, thus, have the ability to engage with those world’s amazing people.  Thus I was always updated when it comes to Encarta till the year 2010 when my brother came back from a mission to bring me that year’s version saying, “I could not find it.” And a year later I could know that there was no longer something called Encarta. I was sad and kind of lost, and I still so till now… somehow…

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Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia is, for real, a complete encyclopedia that gives you information about anything you seek. And it “had” the option to seek further information from the internet in case those in the program would be not enough. It has articles enriched with pictures, videos and sometimes voice-clip as well about the subject you’re searching for.

It got 3D tours in some of the world’s most important ruins, building them to you as they’d been looking at their times, such as The Roman Forum, Abu Simbel’s temple, Acropolis, Colosseum  and more.

It got educational games for adults and kids. It can help you with writing a report and designing it. It got a world’s map divided according to languages. It has math tools and a rich dictionary. It got its own Kids version which is very delightful to explore. There is as well an atlas which shows you the world according to anything you might be wondering about: language, climate, time, religion, population density…etc. and of course you can search your subject by the searching bar.

And my favorite part is the Timeline, where you can travel through time and landing on your desired year reading about every event took place back then.

This product stopped at 2009 and no newer version was made.

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You may be wondering, “what’s so important or special about it? Don’t we already have the internet which can do all this and even much more? Why the drama!”  Well, you are right, but those who tried the product would agree with me that Encarta is a perfect friend for students. A student can find all the needed and most important information about the subject he’s searching for, and would be learning how to dig for more. Its subjects are well categorized and arranged and supported with known and acknowledged sources those can make his reports and studies unquestionable. Furthermore, the program forces the student to be creative and improvising his own words after learning what he needs to learn.

Maybe this product should be taken in consideration again and should be available to serious knowledge-seekers who want a ready information leading them to its endless sea and giving them ideas for developing and sharing it.

Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia has been, and still, my best friend ever. Whenever I buy a new pc, it’s always the first thing to install. And when in need to know about a specific subject and have to give a brief guarantied and, definitely, an understandable and explainable definition, I always seek Encarta, even though it’ll be 10 years for its latest release.

And here I thank Microsoft for making this masterpiece which, at least, has me a forever admirer.

Here some pictures of Encarta from my own

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