Features

• The Great Works of Art Explained I and II: Examine the Gothic masterpiece, Chartres Cathedral
• Distinguish major Greek sculptures created during the Archaic, Classical, and Hellenistic periods
• The Renaissance: identify characteristics of Renaissance art
• Understand the conceptual process of analyzing and simplifying observed reality
• Romanticism: identify the characteristics of Romantic paintings; explore Romantic subjects

Features

• Enjoy the fun of freeform painting, or color in one of the many coloring pages
• Follow step-by-step instructions to draw animals, plants, robots and more
• The full-featured Print Shop offer you hundreds of project templates for everything from greeting cards to personal stationary
• Multimedia tools for creating music shows -- kids will make the screen come to life
• Mia's always around to offer tips or add a joke here & there

Features

• Complete lessons for basic Spanish speaking, reading, writing, and grammar
• Interactive games & conversations help children learn the language
• Develop the conversational French skills your child needs for that trip to Europe or South America!

Product Description

Help young minds find answers to their many questions with the Encyclopedia Britannica Student Library. Two complete age-appropriate encyclopedias - the Elementary Encyclopedia for Grades 1-5 and the Student Encyclopedia for Grades 5-9 - form the cornerstone of this comprehensive tool that interests and involves young learners. ... Read more

Features

• A complete reference library for grades 1 to 9 (Ages: 7 - 14)
• The Elementary Encyclopedia for Grades 1-5 and the Student Encyclopedia for Grades 5-9
• Includes Merriam-Webster's Student Dictionary and Thesaurus
• Features: Atlas; Learning Games and Interactive Study Guides; Timelines
• Online Outreach: Link to 166,000 Web sites selected by Britannica editors

Amazon.com Product Description

Increase your understanding of art and expand your interpretative powers by examining in detail many noted works of art. This product covers a wide range of topics, including the passion and unrest of the 16th century and the artistic triumphs of the Baroque era. Intellectual development is explored as it is reflected in the painting, sculpture, and the decorative arts of the Enlightenment and other periods. Experience art history in a richly interactive environment, from antiquity to abstraction. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Old Technology, Mediocre Interactivity
The good thing: Lots of pictures.

The bad things:
All the pictures are of fairly low quality.
The CD ROM was built for Windows 3.1 so the interface is clunky.
(No nice Marcomedia director stuff here.)
The tone is for a junior high school student.
Random access is possible but not complete: Much of the information is in the walk through slide show with commentary.

Summary: Most worthwhile as an artifact of CD ROM media in it infancy. ... Read more

Features

• Prepare for a first date, job interview, or cocktail party
• Impress friends, influence people, or simply brush up on interesting topics
• Speaking with confidence provides a verbal advantage
• Complete and easy-to-use resource offers the knowledge needed to succeed
• From Jazz to Folk Music to Classical, never again be left speechless

Features

• Prepare for a first date, job interview, or cocktail party
• Impress friends, influence people, or simply brush up on interesting topics
• Speaking with confidence provides a verbal advantage
• Complete and easy-to-use resource offers the knowledge needed to succeed
• From Romanticism to Renaissance to the Pre-Modern Era, never again be left speechless

Features

• Learn 12,000 words through simple point-and-click operation
• Understand words for clothes & accessories, conversation, food & drink, medical, travel and transportation
• Interactive games and activities let you practice speaking Spanish with real native-speakers -- Evaluates and corrects your intonation, stress and intonation

Features

• Prepare for a first date, job interview, or cocktail party
• Impress friends, influence people, or simply brush up on interesting topics
• Speaking with confidence provides a verbal advantage
• Complete and easy-to-use resource offers the knowledge needed to succeed
• From Shakespeare to Dickens to Short Stories, never again be left speechless

Features

• Prepare for a first date, job interview, or coffee house visit
• Impress friends, influence people, or simply brush up on interesting topics
• Speaking with confidence provides a verbal advantage
• Complete and easy-to-use resource offers the knowledge needed to succeed
• From Shakespeare to Dickens to Short Stories, never again be left speechless

Amazon.com Review

Travel Europe's most revered art museums without leaving your desk.Living up to its name, Great Museums of the World is an interactive tour of 14renowned institutions of art, including Parisian treasure the Louvre, Florence'sUffizi, the National Gallery and the Tate in London, and St. Petersburg'sHermitage. Soothing classical tunes set the pace for an educational andenjoyable guide to some of the West's best-known artists and artwork.

The package comprises five CD-ROMs: three volumes devoted entirely to the Louvreand two focused on other European museums. The Louvre CD-ROMs are the mostcomprehensive, though each are structured differently and include differentfeatures. All boast prominent works from the collection as well as audio toursand commentary that teach about the artwork, subject, or artist; the thirdvolume is dedicated to the Egyptian and Italian art collections alone. Alsoincluded is a history and tour of the building that allows you to see, floor byfloor, which collections live where.

The remaining two CD-ROMs present less-comprehensive tours of other Europeanmuseums; these are abbreviated versions of the same features offered for theLouvre program: building histories and visual tours, plus masterpieces andlesser-known works from respective collections. Again, there are audio andtextual overviews by subject, work, or artist, and all programs allow you toprint out works of art and zoom in to examine pieces in greater detail. Oneespecially entertaining feature unique to these volumes: a panoramic tour of avirtual room that houses masterworks; you navigate the room with your mouse,simulating a walk through the gallery.

There are some frustrations in using the product: Many volumes differ slightlyin format and organization, so navigation and key features may prove confusingas you move from program to program; some allow you to zoom in on any part of apainting, while others highlight only a corner for illustration. The searchfunctionality in several of the volumes is imprecise; for example, in theItalian art segment of the Louvre tour, a search for the museum's most famouswork and creator, the Mona Lisa by da Vinci, turns up no results. And while theselection of museums is impressive, we missed North American gems such as NewYork City's Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Guggenheim.

Though no substitute for seeing such masterful works of art in person, GreatMuseums of the World is certainly a less expensive, more convenient alternativeuntil a chance for the real thing comes along--and if it does, a great primerfor first-time visitors. Art aficionados and history buffs may unwittingly spendhours exploring the virtual halls of Europe's most respected artcollections. --Leah Ball ... Read more

Reviews (13)

Technical problems with Great Museums
The five cd's required individual setup for each one. Never could get the third Louvre disk (Egyptian/Italian Art) to load properly. Tried two different computers. Initial viewing of other disks look interesting and informative. I sometimes get a peculiar "double exposure" appearing presentation on the slide shows. I don't know if it is a problem or is intended as some artsie effect. I guess I have paid more for worse programs.

DON'T BUY THIS SET OF CD'S!
I purchased this set of five CD's and got ready to enjoy an art appreciation tour of Europe's museums. Forget it! I could never get any of the Louvre CD's run, even after successful setup of EACH CD and it was dicy whether the other CD's would run. WHAT A DISAPPOINTMENT. Such a good idea.

As one reviewer remarked, 'the software is buggy." I have a new HP Pavillon computer with 200 Gigs of hard drive and fast AMD Athlon processor, and make my living as a software engineer, so it's not the computer.

I tossed them. TOO BAD! Maybe there's something similar that WORKS!

Value and Scope
This is amazing for the money. For those of us who long, and I mean long, for a trip abroad, this is well worth many times the cost. I run a 633MHZ, Intel Celeron and it runs like a dream. Very authentic in atmosphere and effect. The scope is wonderful - a taste of the architecture, the art, and the history.You must understand that I am of the older generation - we were stuck with expensive books or saving for these trips. Maybe that is why this tour seems so valuable to me.

What can I say? Hey, I'm happy...

Money well spent!
This is a fine bunch of CDs. There's not a whole lot of art from the last century--they might have included a bit more modern stuff--but overall it offers a fine, sizable collection of art. Beyond that, I would recommend this because it is the perfect match of form and format; the art looks better on a computer screen than in does in a text, and you can click in for close-ups and details that enlarge with astounding clarity. If these guys come out with CD's focusing on modern art--or architecture--I will be in line to scoop them up.

How do you get it to work?
I was really looking forward to seeing the art but I put the CD's in and nothing happened. At all! I knew it wasn't my computer and tried all of the CDs. What a disappointment. I returned it and hope to find something similar that works! Maybe I just got a bad set. ... Read more

Features

• Compelling biographies of the screen legends from past & present - Steven Spielberg, Katharine Hepburn, Tom Hanks and much more
• Trace the history of the medium from the 19th century to the present, including the silent years, the introduction of color, and more
• Look up past Oscar winners and nominees with the Complete Oscar Database
• Web links, magazine articles, and additional videos online for more in-depth learning

Features

• German Before You Know It Deluxe Edition includes fun and effective activities that really build your German listening, reading, writing, and speaking capabilities.
• Enhance your speaking ability with Pronunciation Practice.
• Test your German knowledge with the multiple choice activities.
• Build your writing and spelling skills with Dictation Practice.