This review is based on the 1997 demo version, so that there may be some uncertainties in relation to the working of the “real” product. This demo version seems to contain three dictionary titles in the business area, while the full version contains up to 50 dictionaries across the range of subjects indicated in the segments listed in the heading. The more detailed contents of each are:
Economics, business finance: 12 titles, approximately 273,000 terms.
Engineering: 26 titles, approximately 777,000 terms.
Agriculture, food and animal science: 17 titles, approximately 460,000 terms.
This therefore seems a flexible product which may be customised (within limits) by individual purchasers. A full list is available of all the dictionaries included in the product and their contents based on the well‐known Elsevier series of specialist dictionaries, a guarantee that they are comprehensive, accurate and pretty well up to date. One oddity to be noted is that within the range of titles some languages do not feature for every term, especially Swedish terms. English, French, Spanish and German do, however, seem to be consistently found throughout.
The programme loads within Word (or other standard word processing packages) and is user friendly, slick and well presented in standard Windows screens. These may be customised for colour, for source and target language, and for typography, thus tailoring the product even further to specific local applications where appropriate. In searching, the first selection is for a source language, and the user may also select a target language, or have the chosen term presented in all the available languages. A search refers to a list of terms in a small box on the left of the screen, with full records for the selected word or phrase appearing in a larger box to the right. Searches may be global across all titles or restricted to segments of the product or to specific dictionary titles. Bibliographic information on each title may also be clicked up on demand. Still further customisation is possible with the “spike” function which allows the creation of personal portfolios of selected documents, also by a user’s notes feature. If the demonstration version is true of the full database, searching is quick, efficient and straightforward. Displays are clear and easy to follow and consistent throughout the product.
Fifty‐one dictionary titles containing some 1,400,000 terms across a range of subjects represents a considerable resource. In a library context this offers speed and ease of consultation, but its real value will lie in “working” situations: for translators obviously, but equally in any circumstance of reading or working in more than one language this programme will offer a convenient, comprehensive and accurate source of a wide range of technical vocabulary.
