Random House Reference and Electronic Publishing
201 East 50th Street
New York, NY 10022
212-751-2100%
ISBN 0-679-42441-5
$159 Book & CD-ROM
$79 CD-ROM Only
I have an admission to make-I read dictionaries for fun. I like to browse through them and groove on interesting words. I can read a dictionary like most people read a book. I guess that finally certifies me as a nerd but I already knew I was a nerd. The Random House Unabridged Dictionary on CD-ROM is not just for nerds like me although I must say it is the ultimate toy for dictionary browsers and Scrabble and crossword addicts.
The Random House Unabridged Dictionary is for everyone that uses a computer and is a "have to have" item for writers, secretaries, wordsmiths-anyone that uses a regular dictionary-anyone that does any serious writing. With over 315,000 entries the Random House Unabridged Dictionary offers depth and breadth enough to suit the most demanding linguist. Leave the Random House Unabridged Dictionary in your CD drive while you're writing and from whatever program you're in you can access the dictionary with hot keys. Even if you don't keep the CD in it shouldn't take any longer to insert the CD and look up a word than it would to get a dictionary off a shelf and look up a word. There is a full range of complex search options and wild cards (? for individual letters and * for multiple letters) allow you to look up words you're not sure how to spell.
Did I mention the Random House Unabridged Dictionary comes as a book also? Yeah, there's a 13 lb., 2,500 page hard copy included in the deal that you can put on your bookshelf or give to your kid to take to college. Although I don't in the least want to belittle the book which is a magnificent tome with the traditional thumb indexes and speckled page edges, I'd rather use the CD. I find definite advantages to having this type of reference on CD. Wildcard searches and cutting and pasting definitions or pronunciations are things you can't do with a book. You can search by categories-for instance all slang words or vulgar words. A few other goodies are thrown in to make the deal a little sweeter: a World Atlas; French, German, Italian and Spanish dictionaries (30,000 words each); and a Basic Manual of Style. Also included are DOS, Windows and Mac versions of the software.
I don't think books will be replaced by CDs anytime soon. A CD somehow just isn't as friendly and physically warm as a book (can you imagine someone collection first editions of CDs?). You can do a little more with CDs and they're smaller. The CD weighs a couple of ounces and the corresponding book weighs 13 lb. But the book doesn't need electricity-buy both.
Paige Turner, Senior Editor at Web Developer's Journal, is the developer of the WeeNIX operating system, a noted industry pundit, and contributor to a wide variety of computer-related publications. Email her at Paige Turner.
