- generally geared toward high-schoolers -
WorldBook for Macintosh 2005 Tiger Edition version 9.0.x came with my iBook 1.33GHz G4 with OS 10.4.2 as the OEM OS, two years ago and has been a fairly solid, reasonable mini-encyclopedia resource, right here on my local hard drive. 'Not exactly sure, but I believe the whole thing takes up a little less than 1.3 GB with all free updates. Of course the multi-media features are well beyond a mini-encyclopedia with mini-films and many images, but most text articles are short and seem to be geared toward a high-school reading level. That can be quite useful if you just need a quick idea of a subject. More complex topics are often not included at all, not a part of the data base; such as complex medical subjects, and that has been a disappointment. Entries tend to be sanitized of most controversy, mostly void of criticism of mainstream figures, organizations etc. The multi-media stuff adds a few seconds to launch time, makes it a little top heavy, but not too bad. It's colorful and somewhat interactive and so might grab some interest from a teenager. WorldBook for Macintosh "is what it is" and I'm glad I have it. It's useful.