Collins English Dictionary and Thesaurus (Dictionary/Thesaurus)

As a translator and professional proofreader I have a constant need for a thesaurus. Naturally, I also have use for UK and US dictionaries and have every available CD-ROM in both languages. But it is the thesaurus for which I have constant use. This one is the best and most comprehensive. The fact that any word can be linked to synomyms as well as the dictionary definition means that you will always home in on the appropriate word or term. 'Oxford' also had an excellent thesaurus but this has never been revised to run on XP, so this must be the best thesaurus buy at the present time. But then adding the very comprehensive coverage of the dictionary makes this a winner in every sense. I use the dictionary to check words which I feel do not exist. Most dictionaries confirm this. Collins shows that these are indeed new words in the English language.

This dictionary is excellent.
The problem of not being able to run the software without the CD ROM has been fixed and a download is available from the support site.

The synopsis applies to the earlier (second) edition of 1995, which I own and love.
I have just bought the newer (2002) edition and am bitterly disappointed with it.
It no longer has 149 words for dra*. It has 20.
It no longer allows wildcards such as d?s?y for help with the Times crossword.
It no longer gives anagrams from SOME of the letters (like "test match" from "cat sat on the mat"). It gives all or nothing. And quite often nothing.
It does not give you the option to request an anagram. It gives one when it sees fit. And it doesn't recognize "a brown I" as "rainbow". Or "citsalp" as "plastic".
It no longer gives the word list (of words near the search word) nor displays the next full word as you type the first bit. It requires you to put in a full word, and press Enter.
And although you install it completely on your hard drive it requires the CD in the drive as a security measure, preventing me from playing music.
At least it has "internet" in it, which the previous version did not, and which prompted me to upgrade.

This CD-Rom is extraordinary informative. The entries have IPA transcriptions and very clear explanations. I particularly like the use of colours to differentiate the words from their synonyms and antonyms. When you look at the synonyms or antonyms, you get loads of terms to choose from - and I dare say you could feel a bit lost not knowing all their meanings - but what you have to do is to simply right-click on each word and a small dictionary window appears, giving you extra information on the meaning of the word you didn't know. By clicking on the "Examples" entry, you sometimes get hundreds to thousands of examples taken from the Bank of English, i.e. a 450 millions words database of contemporary language from real sources of information.
My only disappointment is that the CD-Rom doesn't install completely onto my hard disk and I have to run it every time I need it, but it's really worth and I am happy I bought it.