Merriam Webster Medical Desk Dictionary

Merriam-Webster's main good point:
pronouces every single entry, including various forms of each word, such as "beauty", "beautiful" plus you can copy the whole disc into your computer, so you don't have to put in the CD every time you look stuff up. Can't do with Microsoft.

Other than that, it isn't a very good computer dictionary. It looks like somebody just scanned the information into the computer. The dictionary has limited space, that's why stuff is crammed in the there, but the computer should read with more paragraph separations which costs no more memory. There are few examples.

I also don't like the fact that you have to clear each entry before you can look up the next word, which I don't have to do with Microsoft's.

It is a usable dictionary and thesarus, and has plenty of entries. I think it is particular worth it for someone learning English as a foreign language.


Work Adequately on the Mac, Could be Improved   September 6, 2004
Glenn R. Howes (Nashua, NH)
41 out of 47 found this review helpful

I'm typing this on a Powerbook G4 running Mac OS X 10.3, according to the top utility, the Merriam-Webster application is taking between 7% and 12% of the CPU time while idling in the background. If every application I owned did this, I would be in trouble. Thankfully, most commercial applications are better written.

Not that I don't appreciate the product for what it does. It is incredibly useful for looking up words, solving crossword puzzles and the like. I know I use it frequently and think it a bargain.

However, as a Mac coder, I find its interface and performance well below professional standards. It is easily the ugliest application I use on a daily basis with its mixture of faux 3D elements and Mac native widgets, it's garish color scheme, blocky icons and its tendency to suck down cycles as if its programmers had never heard of a Carbon Event.


A very nice product; but doesn't integrate with browsers.   July 16, 2004
25 out of 26 found this review helpful

This is undoubtedly the best dictionary & thesaurus available today. The features that impressed me the most are:

1: You don't have to leave the CD in the drive to use the 'pronounciation' feature. You can optionally install the sound files on your hard disk. (Approx. 532 MB)

2: Multiple pronounciations invoked where appropriate.

3: Installs without a glitch and integrates with MS Word.

4: Has a lot of nice features like 'Spelling Help'.

I hope the 12th Edition will integrate with email browsers, not just with MS Word. Also, I would have preferred the thesaurus invoked automatically in an additional pane instead of switching between dictionary and thesaurus.


Merriam-Webster's Spell Checker, Macintosh version   October 28, 2000
BarbL (NJ, USA)
19 out of 21 found this review helpful

The last System Requirement shown on the box states " . . . a compatible text processing program." It is only when you read the Read Me file on the CD that you find out the only compatible program listed is Microsoft Word for the Mac. The Merriam-Webster web site (www.Merriam-Webster.com) is more specific: "Microsoft Office, including [Microsoft]Word (6.x and 7.x)." The manual installation procedure (there is also an automatic setup) tells you to replace your word processor's dictionary file with this one. This may be a good world processing program. Great, even. But it may also be a dictionary file, limited to use with Microsoft Word. (PC users will find it is used with Microsoft and Lotus products -- see the Mirriam-Webster web site for their list.)


Poorly designed screen functions   August 5, 2005
Maria R. Mcgowan (Escondido, CA)
16 out of 18 found this review helpful

Although this dictionary's contents are extensive, the screen functions are relics from the DOS era. They are laborious and clumsy. To find a word for difinition, it has to be spelled perfectly, there's no list of proximations to the word entered. Changing a word selection is also clumsy especially in the thesaurus when the cursor doesn't show up in the entry slot. If someone knows of a better software, I'd sure like to hear cause this thing sucks!! Maria McGowan