Students are spending a considerable amount of time on homework these days –11 hours or more per week, according to 14 percent of the teachers and 16 percent of parents surveyed in a recent study – and they still needing to make time for soccer practice!  thankfully, Microsoft is now offering a great solution with Microsoft Student, a research and tutorial program that includes Encarta and Microsoft Math—just in time for the new school year!

 We would like to invite you to speak with Dave Brooks, product manager of Microsoft Student, one-on-one during the Digital Life conference in New York.  He will be available on September 27-28.

 Below is some more information about Microsoft Student ($49.95). Microsoft Math ($19.95), which is the math portion of Student, and Encarta Premium 2008 ($29.95) are each available as separate products. Learn more or download the products at Microsoft.com/Student.

 Please let me know if you have any questions, would like a trial of the program, or are  interested in speaking with Dave, and I can set up an appointment for you.

 Thanks for your consideration.  We’re looking forward to seeing you at Digital Life!

 Best,
Devon Wade

Maloney & Fox for Microsoft

646.356.8325



Microsoft Student With Encarta Premium 2008

Fact Sheet

 Technology and the Internet have transformed the way students access information. Today’s students have a broad range of knowledge at their fingertips, but the wealth of resources and user-generated content that is spread throughout the Web can make it difficult for students to find the relevant tools and accurate information they need to get through an abundance of challenging assignments. Microsoft Corp. recognizes the need for credible content and is dedicated to providing trusted, reliable resources that enhance productivity and help students succeed academically.

 Product Overview

Microsoft® Student with Encarta® Premium 2008 is a productivity suite of homework tools and trusted information designed to help students quickly and  easily complete assignments in a variety of subjects and excel in school.Whether it’s a math, research or foreign language assignment, Microsoft Student helps students get a jump start on homework, solve problems
efficiently and complete assignments that can help them earn higher grades.Microsoft Student with Encarta Premium 2008 also provides trusted resources that direct students to accurate and engaging content, allowing them to spend less time searching and more time learning.

 Features

The following are key features of Microsoft Student with Encarta Premium 2008:

*         Encarta Premium 2008. Students can find trusted and up-to-date reference information and engaging multimedia using the No. 1 best-selling software encyclopedia brand for the past eight years.1 Encarta Premium includes more than 60,000 articles edited by a team of experts, more than 25,000 photos and illustrations, 800 videos and interactive content, 3,000
sound and music clips, and a wide range of reference tools such as a dynamic atlas, a dictionary, a thesaurus, and language-translation dictionaries.

*         Microsoft Math. With a large collection of tools, tutorials and instruction, students will see how to quickly solve problems step by step,from basic math to prealgebra, algebra (including logarithms and exponents) and trigonometry.

-      Graphing Calculator. This simple-to-use and full-featured tool with extensive 2-D and 3-D graphing and equation-solving capabilities helps students visualize and solve math and science problems.

-      Step-by-Step Equation Solver. Complete step-by-step solutions to many math problems give students the support they need.

-      Equation Library. This resource contains more than 100 common equations and formulas that enable students to identify and easily apply the equation necessary to solve math and science problems.

-      Triangle Solver. With this tool students can explore triangles and understand the relationship between their parts to solve sides, angles,values and formulas.

-      Unit Conversion Tool. Students can quickly and easily convert units of measure, including length, area, volume, weight, temperature, pressure,energy, power, velocity and time with this tool.

*         NEW! Learning Essentials 2.0. Templates and tutorials transform Microsoft Office Word, PowerPoint® and Excel® into student-oriented applications with writing tips and a quick start to creating great-looking papers, presentations and reports to help students achieve better grades. Students can get past the initial blank page and formatting questions of major assignments to focus on the core learning. Learning Essentials works with  Microsoft Office XP, Microsoft Office 2003 and the new 2007 Microsoft Office system, which are sold separately.

-         Templates with project assistance provide a solid foundation for exceptional assignments and help students organize their work. Examples include templates for homework planning, writing projects, book reports and guidelines for great presentations. There are even templates designed to help improve analytical thinking on physics and chemistry assignments.

-         Tutorials developed with the expertise of leading education publishers such as the Great Source division of Houghton Mifflin, Pearson Prentice Hall and SchoolKiT provide students with step-by-step coaching through the process of producing top-quality work. For example, the Research Writing tutorial walks a student through three types of research reports,
and the Understanding Chart Types tutorial explains how to use charts to organize and analyze data.

-         Toolbars unveil a customized set of student-oriented and project-specific resources and commands to be used as a companion to Microsoft Office that appear automatically when using a template. For example, students have one-click access to math symbols and foreign language characters.

*         Foreign language help. Microsoft Student contains a full-featured dictionary to help translate and conjugate verbs in Spanish, French, German and Italian. Learning Essentials also provides tools that are specifically designed for foreign language study with templates and tools for completing assignments in Spanish, French and German.

*         Web Links. Microsoft Student directs students to more than 25,000 trusted Web sites that have been preselected by Encarta editors for relevant and age-appropriate research material.

*         Book summaries. More than 1,000 book summaries help students understand some of the most commonly studied works of literature by providing a brief synopsis of the story, information on the author, and analysis of themes, characters and ideas for writing reports or studying for a test. Illuminating facts and insights facilitate the understanding and appreciation of many classic works of literature.

 Format

DVD-ROM for Windows® XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) or later operating systems;choice of DVD-ROM or CD-ROM for academic volume-licensing customers

System Requirements

The following are required to use Microsoft Student with Encarta Premium 2008:

•          A personal computer with a Pentium 600MHz processor or faster (1 GHz or f   faster recommended)

•          Windows XP SP2 or later

•          256 MB of RAM (512 MB or more recommended)

•          1.5 GB of available hard disk space

•          Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 (included on disc, requires between 210 MB and 620 MB of hard disk space)

•          DVD-ROM drive

•          High Color-capable or better video card with a minimum 800×600 resolution (1024×768 recommended)

•          Microsoft Mouse, Microsoft IntelliMouse® or compatible pointing device

•          16-bit sound card and headphones or speakers  These additional items or services are required to use certain features:

•          Encarta Kids requires an additional 430 MB of hard disk space

•          Copy to Hard Drive requires an additional 1.8 GB of available hard disk space

•          Learning Essentials templates and toolbars require Office XP,Office 2003 or the 2007 Microsoft Office system, available separately

•          Access to sounds and videos requires Windows Media® Player 8

•          Access to interactive media requires Adobe Shockwave and Adobe Flash players

 To use Math Online Help, Update Encarta, Web Links, Weather and Radio Links,or Encarta Premium Online, you need the following2:

•          A 28.8 Kbps or faster modem

•          An Internet connection3

•          Up to 4 MB of additional hard disk space is required for each month’s installment

•          Access to Encarta Premium Online requires a Microsoft .NET Passport (Windows Live™ ID)4

 Availability

Microsoft Student with Encarta Premium 2008 is scheduled to be available in late June 2007 for an estimated retail price of $49.95 (U.S.).