As with other DK Multimedia products, Eyewitness World Atlas provides an interesting 3‐D window as its opening screen. Once loaded, the viewer approaches a 3‐D Earth and moon from space, descending rapidly through the atmosphere to soar effortlessly over various landscapes (as if in a low‐flying jet airplane), eventually approaching a domed structure that represents a museum which contains a 3‐D globe sitting on a desk within. On the left side of the desk, three clickable topics are available to the user: physical world (and amazing journeys); political world; and Earth at night.
Each of these topics is shown on the 3‐D and 2‐D globe and map of the Earth available on the right side of the screen. Also on the left side of the screen is the country index, a list of 17 areas to explore for each country of interest to the user. On the bottom of the screen are buttons for index, glossary, options, help and back. The Amazing Journeys section of the product are prepackaged multimedia explorations of certain landscapes across Earth. These journeys are: Africa, Europe by river, Central Asia, Japan, Australasia, The Andes, Across the Rockies, and East Coast USA.
The 3‐D globe is the focus of the product where the user can click on any country in the world and pull up a detailed road map/atlas of the country. Mileage between cities and places can be found by clicking two separate points of interest. The user can minimize or maximize a view of the country at any time. Both a 3‐D globe and a 2‐D atlas can be accessed at any time. The country index will list the statistics and figures of importance for any country accessed; and the world ranking button on the right side of the screen will show the user where the country’s statistics relate with other countries in the world. There are also online Web site links for every country in the world.
This DK product took fairly long to load ‐ more so than other DK products that I have reviewed. The price is very reasonable for this type of CD. I have always been impressed with DK Multimedia products and this one is no exception. Although it does not contain as many interesting multimedia buttons as other DK products, the Amazing Journeys section does provide 3‐D fly‐bys of specific geographic areas of interest. This product would work well with middle to high school students, as well as users who wish to have a multimedia world atlas product that is simple and easy to access. I would recommend this product for those reasons.
