National Geographic 112 Years
32 CD ROM Edition

By Dale Farris, Secretary Golden Triangle PC Club November 2002 General Overview WOW! What a collection this is! In this one set, you now have access to ALL National Geographic magazines published from the very beginning, in1888, through the issues released in 2000. Long time readers of National Geographic well know the high quality of the content, and especially the world famous photography found each month in National Geographic, and it is not uncommon to find homes filled with bookshelves stacked with past issues of this award winning geography magazine. I know. I have 30 years of past issues organized in my own 3,500+ volume library, all nicely bound in the special leather binders National Geographic began selling a few years ago. I also have countless of the equally famous National Geographic maps, also nicely collected in their own special leather binders, proudly sitting on the shelves next to the magazine. This latest edition of this awesome reference collection updates the first venture in this CD ROM storage collection that National Geographic first began to market in the "old" Windows 95 era. I also am a proud owner of this first optical disc collection I proudly purchased from National Geographic, and I have been amazing friends and family ever since, when I show then on screen an image of the very first 1888 issue of the magazine. Now, with this exciting new partnership with Topics Entertainment, even more customers will have an opportunity to enjoy this solid, unique reference collection of National Geographic magazines. This new arrangement will surely help increase the awareness of and interest in this superb reference collection, and with the unbelievably reasonable price of merely $50, this too should also help increase sales. Program Overview This is an extraordinary archive of National Geographic magazine. The program begins in 1888, with the very first issue of the magazine ever published, and includes all issues through 2000. This means you will get over 100 years of adventure and discovery on very own your personal computer. The top-notch search engine in this program, that has been greatly enhanced over the original edition, makes it possible to find any article that has ever appeared in any National Geographic magazine. Browse easily through more than 184,000 spectacular images, 9,500 fascinating articles, over 194,000 pages in all! You can even continue your search on the Internet, by also installing the Web access during the program installation, with just a click of your mouse. At any time, you can learn more about how to use this program by clicking Tutorial or Help on the Navigation Menu. Click Tutorial to play a brief video that introduces you to the program and its features. Click Help to read detailed information about the feature you are using. From there you can also go to the Table of Contents or Index screens to find help on any other feature within the program. Program Operations The program is equipped with an autorun feature. To use this feature, you just select any CD from the set and insert it into your CD-ROM drive, label side up. When the CD-ROM drive has recognized the CD, the autorun screen will appear. You can click anywhere on the opening screen to skip the introduction video. Each time you start The Complete National Geographic, you will be asked to sign in, unless the “Automatic Sign-In” preference has been checked. When you sign in, the program creates a file in your name. All of the bookmarks, search criteria, and results lists that you save are stored in this file. The ability to reuse this stored information can save you time in future sessions. If you don’t sign in, this information is lost when you close the program. Cover Gallery From the Cover Gallery, you can view all of the magazine covers in the entire archive, as well as each issue’s table of contents. This feature is available no matter which of the CDs you have in your drive. In addition, the Navigation Menu, which appears when you click the Compass icon at the bottom-left corner of the screen, lets you access all the program’s features. The Cover Gallery shows you a year’s worth of issues at a time. This feature includes the Active Decade, which helps you find issues by decade. The box in the upper-left corner of the screen shows you which decade is currently selected. To switch to a different decade, move the mouse pointer over the box to display a complete list of decades, and then click the decade you want. You can also click the arrow below the bottom year to display the previous decade, and just click the arrow above the top year to display the next decade. Below the decade is a list of its years with the currently selected year high-lighted. Simply click a different year in this list to select it. In addition, you can click the arrow to the left of “January” to scroll back a year, or click the arrow to the right of “December” to scroll forward a year. With the Month and Issue feature, you see a thumbnail image of each issue of the magazine from the selected year displayed on a timeline. Click on an issue to see a larger version of its cover image and its complete table of contents. The Table of Contents presents a complete list of articles next to the enlarged image of the selected issue. Click the title of an article to view it. If the issue is located on a different CD, the program will display a message telling you which CD to insert. Note: Many times the full table of contents can’t fit into the screen all at once. When this happens, you will see an arrow on top of or below the contents list. Click these arrows to scroll up and down through the complete list. With the Compass Icon, you click it to access the Navigation Menu. The CD In Use feature shows you which CD is currently in your drive. There are two easy ways to see which CD is currently in your drive. The year span for the active CD is listed in the title bar, which runs across the top of the Cover Screen, and the year span is also shown on an icon located in the bottom-right corner of the screen. Navigation Menu You use the Navigation Menu to go directly to any of the features included in the collection. To access the Navigation Menu, click on the Compass icon located in the lower left corner of the screen. The commands on this menu are described here. The Cover Gallery lets you select a year of magazine issues to be displayed in the Cover Gallery. Search takes you to either the Simple or the Advanced search screen. Search Results takes you back to the last Search Results screen that was displayed during this session. Article Viewer lets you select an issue of the magazine and go straight to the cover. Go Back is just like a Back arrow in a Web browser, and it takes you back to the screen that you just left. Bookmark lets you create a bookmark and save notes about it. You then can return to this bookmarked page at any time, in either the current session or a future one. Web lets you continue your search on the National Geographic Web site. Articles Viewed opens a list of the articles that have been viewed during this session. You can easily return to any of these articles by selecting it and clicking Go There, or by double-clicking the title. In addition, you can display this listing in chronological or alphabetical order. List of Articles gives you an easy way to view several types of article lists, articles on the current CD, currently selected results, or any of the customized lists that you have made. Then from any of these lists, you can view an article either by double-clicking its title, or by selecting its title and clicking OK. Preferences allows you to change some settings within the program. Help is used to view specific information about the feature you are using. From there you can go to the Table of Contents or Index screens to find help on any other feature. Register lets you register from your PC. Tutorial pays the tutorial video, which introduces you to the program and its features, and Exit closes the program. Searching the Archives What helps make this new edition of this nonpareil archive is its searching options. There are two levels of searches built into the program, including simple and advanced. Both give you the ability to search the entire magazine archive of over 100 years of thousands of articles. The Simple Search is the search screen to use if you want to specify just a few parameters. It gives you two different ways to search. You can enter keywords using Boolean operators to restrict your search, and select from a few basic options about which portions of the archives to search. Or, you can search by category by browsing through the categories in the archive database. You use the Advanced Search if you want to specify a much narrower set of parameters. Here you can also enter keywords using Boolean operators to restrict your search. You can use keywords, specify a record type, either magazine content or even advertisements, narrow the search to articles, departments, and/or page references. If you choose Page References, you’ll also be able to limit your search to a specific type of illustration by selecting Cover, Page, and/or Map Illustrations. You can also specify a date range, including the Entire Set, Current CD, or Current Decade buttons, or use the From and To boxes to specify particular months and years. For magazine content, you can select All Searchable Fields or limit your search to either Title; Title, Summary, Subjects; or Title, Summary, Contributors. For Advertisements, you can select All Searchable Fields or limit your search to either Company Name or Title, Subjects. If you are searching Magazine Content, Limit to Category gives you the option to search all database categories or confine your search to a single category. Regardless whether you are using the Simple or the Advanced search screen, in both cases you can use Boolean operators to restrict your search. Your entire search expression can contain up to 35 terms, and have up to 600 characters. Boolean operators are interpreted from left to right, with operations in parentheses performed first. The And operator retrieves items that contain all the terms in your search query. For example, lions And tigers locates all items containing both lions and tigers. The Or operator retrieves items that contain one or both of the terms. For example, lions Or tigers locates items containing either lions or tigers. The Not operator retrieves items that contain one of the words or phrases, but not the other. For example, jersey Not new locates all items containing the word jersey, but not the word new. In addition, Asterisks (Wildcards) can be placed at the beginning, end, or within a search term. The asterisk indicates that the search can include any number of characters to match the term. For example, cat* locates cat, catalytic, caterpillar, cats etc., and *on locates lion, motion, Oregon, etc. The Question Mark is a special wildcard that can be placed at the beginning, end, or within a search term. Each question mark represents a character. For example, ??on? locates lions, irons, etc. Be aware that if you include multiple wildcards in a single search, the time to complete the search will increase. The search engine also supports the use of square brackets. To search for a  phrase, enter it in the search field enclosed with square brackets, and in the order the words should appear. For example, [Easter Island] locates Easter Island, Easter Island Unveiled, etc. Be aware that acronyms and hyphenated words are retrieved in any order. For example, a search for [C D] may also retrieve [D.C.]. Double Quotes surrounding a search term disable recognition of Boolean operators. For example “And,” “To,” and “Like” in quotes are treated as search terms and NOT as Boolean operators. You can put any Boolean operator in quotes and make it part of the search term. Use double quotes to search for terms such as “Lewis and Clark.” This retrieves items where Lewis and Clark appear near one another. For example, “Easter Island” retrieves Easter Islanders, if no items matching Easter Island are found. If no occurrences of the truncated version of the phrase are found, the search automatically expands to find occurrences of Easter AND Island. Expanding Your Search to the Web If this search engine is not already powerful enough, The Complete National Geographic also makes it easy to continue using your search criteria on the World Wide Web. On the Navigation menu, click Web. Or, from the Advanced Search screen, click Search Web. If you go to the web from the Advanced search screen, this opens your Web browser to the National Geographic site and transmits your Advanced search criteria. All you do is click Seek on the National Geographic page! Using The Search Results The Search Results screen gives you many ways to sort through the archived material that matches the search criteria you set. Ten records are the most that can be displayed on each screen. You may need to use the Up and Down arrows to scroll through the record list on any given page. If you want to jump directly to an article, simply click on its red title. Summary Information is displayed at the top of the page, where you will see the keyword (s) you searched for, as well as the number of records “Found” and which portion is currently “Showing.” Click ABC if you want to sort the search results alphabetically, or click Date if you want them sorted by publishing date. Depending on what you choose, either an alphabet or a list of decades will appear at the bottom of the screen to allow you to jump to the part of the list that you wish to view. The Hide/Show Summary allows you to display or hide summary information, including page number, related topics, and whether the record includes illustrations. To the immediate left of an article’s title is a checkbox which can be used to select a record for printing or for a customized list that you create. Click the checkbox to select it, or click Select All. After you have selected the records that interest you, click either Save or Print on the bottom tool bar. If you click Save, a customized list of articles will be created for you and stored in List of Articles, which is accessible from the Navigation Menu. If you click Print, the program will print information about that article from the search database. Click Select All if you want to select all records on this page. If you want to select only a few individual records, you can do so by clicking the check box to the right of the record’s title. Click Deselect All if you want to clear (deselect) all records on this page. The Jump To allows you to move forward or backward in the list, viewing records from a specific decade or part of the alphabet. Click a decade or letter to view its records, if any. Click Previous 10 if you want to view the previous 10 records in the list. Click Next 10 if you want to view the next 10 records in the list. Click the Print button on the bottom tool bar if you want to print the selected records. Click the Save button on the bottom tool bar if you want to save the selected records. Click Start if you want to search using new or revised keywords. Type these words in the text box and then click the Start button. The program will complete another search. The Search Web option allows you to use the same criteria to search the National Geographic Web site. Viewing Pages The Complete National Geographic includes several viewing tools to help you display the information you are looking for, whether on or off screen. When you are viewing a magazine page, a tool bar with the following buttons appears across the bottom of the screen. Note: Make sure Show Tooltips is turned on to see the pop-up labels for these buttons. Compass Icon—Click here to access the Navigation Menu Contrast Control—Click the buttons or slide the control bar to lighten/darken text and images on the page. When you exit the program, the settings will automatically be reset to the standard display settings. Image View Options—Click to see a pop-up menu of options. You can select Fit in Window, View 100%, Fit to Width, or Fit to Height. Rotate Page Left—Click to turn the current page(s) 90 degrees to the left. Rotate Page Right—Click to turn the current page(s) 90 degrees to the right. Print—Click to print the page(s). Previous Article—Click to view the previous article in the issue Previous Page—Click to view the previous page in the issue Next Page—Click to view the next page in the issue Next Article—Click to view the next article in the issue Using Bookmarks To find your way back to a particular article easily, during the current session or at a later date, create a bookmark. In addition, you can add detailed notes to your bookmarks, citing points of particular interest. To open the dialog box, select Bookmark on the Navigation Menu. To add a bookmark, type a Bookmark Name for the bookmark and any notes you wish to add. Then click Save Note. To review a bookmark, select the bookmark name and then click View Note. To return to a bookmarked page, select its name and then click Go There. To edit a bookmark, select its name and then click View Note. Make any changes to the bookmark, and then click Save Note. Printing The Complete National Geographic gives you a great deal of printing flexibility. For articles, you can choose to print either the left page, right page, page spread (the two facing left and right pages), or all pages (the entire article). For search results, you can either print all results or only those that you have selected. Simply click the Print button on the Tool Bar, set your printing preferences, and click OK. Super Features CD ROM access to complete archive (through 2000) of National Geographic 196,000+ pages 185,000+ photos and illustrations 9,500+ articles Over 100 years of classic advertisements Incredibly reasonable price point East-to-use, user friendly interface Extremely sophisticated, very powerful search engine Super view, save, and print options All information in all issues since 1888 contained These discs add up to a one-stop resource for access to the complete archive of over 100 years of National Geographic. This is one of the most remarkable software events of all time, and a testament to the genius of National Geographic, the world's leading geography magazine that for over 100 years has served as the premier resource for learning about our world. This transformation of these over 100 years of National Geographic means we no longer have to wonder what it was like to read issues of the Geographic in its early days. We can now read for ourselves, as well as actually see what these early issues looked like, as well as see the actual advertisements that helped pay for the publications so long ago. Recommendation Without a doubt, ALL public libraries should make a point to be sure and get their copy of this important computer reference to add to their growing list of essential reference titles. Larger libraries that experience more requests from customers needing to do research in older issues of the Geographic will absolutely want to be sure to have this necessary tool in their collection, if not more than one copy. In addition, all school libraries will want to strongly consider adding this collection to their reference materials. Once you install and run with this collection, then it is a simple matter of working with National Geographic to add the annual updates that will keep the optical, CD ROM collection current. System Requirements Windows Machines Pentium 266MHz processor Windows 95, 98, 98 SE, 98 ME, 2000 (will run also in Win XP) 32MB RAM 70MB free hard disk space SVGA video card supporting 16-bit color 16-bit sound card and speakers 4X CD-ROM drive Mouse Optional Printer 14.4 Kbps modem or faster for Internet access 25MB free hard-disk space for AOL software installation Mac Machines PowerPC System 7.5 - 9.1 32MB RAM 70MB free hard disk space 640 x 480 16-bit color display 16-bit sound card and speakers 4X CD ROM drive Mouse Although these minimum system requirements are not that steep, I would recommend running this program on higher configured machines, if at all possible. With this program you are in effect looking at a massive amount of graphics files that represent the text pages and photo spreads from these 112 years of past issues of National Geographic. This will just operate more smoothly on higher end machines, especially CD ROM drives faster than the minimum required. With 32 CD ROM discs containing all 112 years of the magazine, you will be needing to swap the optical discs as you find the particular past issue you wish to read that will be located on 1 of these 32 discs. Installation and Setup You will need the Install Me CD to install the program, but you do not need it for searching or reading the archived articles. However, you should store the Install Me CD in a safe place where it will be accessible if you need to reinstall the program or watch the tutorial. during installation, the program will ask you which screen size you want to use, Best Fit, 640x480, 800x600, or 1024x768. If you are not sure which size to choose, select Best Fit and the program will pick the best one for your current display settings. During the installation, setup will ask to find your Internet browser. You can set up Internet access right away, or run the Internet Link setup later. To view the program videos, you must have Apple's QuickTime for 32-bit Windows (Version 3.0 or higher). If needed, the program will launch this QuickTime setup program automatically. You can also use existing, higher versions of QuickTime. Price $50.00 (Quite a bargain!) Note that at this price for this phenomenal resource, this means libraries will find it much more easy to add additional copies to their collections. About TOPICS Entertainment This venture between TOPICS Entertainment and National Geographic is in my opinion one of the most significant and important in CD ROM history. With the highest reputation for quality and educational content, and generations of subscribers, National Geographic represents one of the more prestigious of all present and past magazines to be collected together in such a marvelous collection. One wonders who in the world would want such a similar CD ROM archive of, say, People magazine, or US magazine. All fans of National Geographic will want to join me in congratulations TOPICS Entertainment for this remarkable partnership that is certain to be a success. TOPICS Entertainment, with corporate offices located in Renton, Washington, is a premier publisher of educational software and spoken word audio products. Founded in 1990 as a distributor of niche and specialty video, TOPICS, then called CounterTop Video, quickly became one of the most sought-after suppliers of special-interest video in the United States, with products on the shelves of more than 5,000 independent retailers. In 1994, TOPICS founder and president, Greg James, an accomplished producer of video documentaries, led the company into the burgeoning field of video publishing. TOPICS inaugural release, "America By Rail," has since become one of the biggest special-interest video success stories, with sales in the hundreds of thousands. By 1996, with a growing catalogue of video titles released and sales records shattered, TOPICS seized the opportunity to expand into the growing personal computer market by venturing into consumer CD-ROM publishing. Getting its feet wet with "Super Games Galore," a software collection of over 300 games for the PC, TOPICS realized an overwhelming public response, cementing the company's commitment to quality content and approachable pricing. Since then, TOPICS has become a leading publisher of language and reference software. NPD Intellect now ranks TOPICS as the 10th largest consumer software company overall. With almost 200 titles in its portfolio, TOPICS Entertainment has sold over five million units! In 2000, TOPICS continued to preach its own gospel of quality, content, and value with "James Earl Jones Reads The Bible," one of the company's first forays into the realm of spoken-word and audio-books. To date, with some 50 releases encompassing everything from "The Call of the Wild" to "Arthur Conan Doyle," "Fibber McGee" to "Frankenstein," the company's repertoire of spoken-word audio on CD and cassette continues to demonstrate an exceptional 3-to-1 value-to-price ratio. It's one of the fastest-growing product segments for TOPICS, and the company is dedicated to nurturing this line. It's no coincidence that the name of the company is homophonous to Top Picks. The TOPICS team diligently scours the globe in search of unusual, adventurous, and unique content that adheres to exacting standards of educational and recreational merit. TOPICS is pleased to have formed publishing partnerships with some of the world's pre-eminent authorities, including Rand McNally, The Audubon Society, World Book Encyclopedia, the Discovery Channel, Simon & Schuster, and Vivendi Universal. The company is equally thrilled to discover emerging content in remote corners of the world, in the hopes of introducing the consumer to another TOPICS breakthrough. TOPICS Entertainment has doubled sales volume every year. The company is privately owned, financed solely by its own profits, and entirely debt-free. Market tracking, business surveys, and national sales data all rate TOPICS Entertainment as the #1 fastest-growing major consumer software publisher in America. In a field that encourages thinking outside the box, customers and retailers alike can have confidence in what TOPICS puts inside theirs. Contact Information Lindsay Collins Director of Media & Public Relations TOPICS Entertainment 1600 S.W. 43rd St. Renton, WA 98055 425-656-3621 lindsay@topics-ent.com topics-ent.com