Crenshaw's Books & Decks

I have had the Collins Advanced Learners Cobuild CD-Rom 2006 since it was launched. To the date, it is my preferred English Dictionary on CD and the best one for foreigners. I have barely used the hard copy because the CD is so good that it makes it unnecessary. This review is about the CD-Rom, not about the hard copy version.

There are so many reasons why I love the Collins Cobuild. If I had to be short, I would say it runs smoothly, it looks pretty, and the definitions are clear, simple and comprehensive.

The CD-Rom runs smoothly, it is fast and non-invasive in your computer's memory. You won't have the program hanging up or freezing ever. The only times I have re-installed it is when I have changed computer, and that is a lot to say for any software.

The blue, white and red interface is really elegant, pleasant, crisp and clear, and it can be customised by adjusting the font type an font size to your liking.

The definitions are clear, comprehensive, with different meanings and syntactic functions clearly shown and structured. Each definition or sub-definition comes with an example of use; if you need more, you press the WorldBank button and can find plenty of contextualised examples extracted from literary and non-literary texts. Moreover, British and American spellings and preferences are clearly shown, and many times the word comes with a synonym or antonym to better show the meaning. Each word comes with a native voice's pronunciation of the same (singular/plural and difference verb tenses), which is great for foreign students.

Extra features that I love are:
+ Copy and paste are available between the program and your Text or Word program.
+ You can create a personalised dictionary, yes! by adding words that are not in it. This is extremely helpful when you work with specific semantic fields with very specific vocabulary that you won't usually find in a general dictionary. Say, for example, mechanics, ecclesiastical terminology, sartorial language, etc. 
+ You can switch on/off the automatic pronunciation of each word.
+ You can choose whether you want the phonetics of the word shown or not.
+ You can record your own pronunciation of the word and compare it to the original. This is perfect for foreigners learning the language or just to have your best (native) friend pronouncing the words for you!

Things that I don't specially like are:
- The pop up feature, actually a reduction of the search area to a mini-window; you cannot switch to full display from there and have to close and reopen the program. Bummer!
- I don't like the phonetic transliteration system used as it is not the International phonetic system.

I use this CD-Rom all the time for personal and professional purposes and, eight years later I am still in love with it