However, the volumes fail in many aspects. The book on information system management covering computer fundamentals, for example, does not delve deep on general interest topics like MS Office and its applications. A conspicuous miss out in MS Word is the explanation of Macros. Macros happens to be one of the lesser-known features of the application and compared to creating, opening and saving a file that are elementary features, is unlikely to be learnt while just working on a computer.

Another important development of the past few years, the Linux operating system, has been totally omitted by the authors even when they talk about Unix-based operating systems. The Internet chapter, which by and large is used by students and professionals alike, is repetitive in its information. The books definitely stand good in one aspect - their Indianness. Fed up with reading books based on experiences from these fields in the US, this series is a welcome change. The Information Technology Act 1999 has been dealt with very well, indeed.

On the other hand, the books, going by the prefaces and introductions, are supposed to be a resource material for the students of BCA, MCA, BIT, MS (Computer Science), but are quite elementary (at places) in their approach, so it would be advisable that they be dubbed as ideal resource material for either the specialised community of information technology students or for just about any one interested in learning about IT. This would entail the authors to come up with improved versions that could dislodge such discrepancies.

The criticism is not to say that the ten volumes come out useless for an average reader, they in fact, are very well capable of making an uninitiated delve deep into the pages. More so because it is written in an everyday racy language than being jargon-filled intimidating volumes of incomprehensible character. Newly emerging topics such as intellectual property rights and computer software protection are touched up on but, the authors have preferred to close their eyes to the omnipresent viruses looming large in the cyber world and threaten many an expert.

The set also contains a CD. To access the reading material on the CD, i.e. the courseware (it is unclear that in an `encyclopedia set', what is a course material doing?), has to be installed and then one can browse through the matter. The aim of the EDI course material is to have a thorough and meaningful knowledge of e-commerce and EDI.

The content of the CD has been divided under five major heads. Origin and concepts, business process re-engineering, electronic commerce technologies, implementation issues and strategies and EDI action. Together these five heads cover a wide range of topics from the basic understanding of electronic commerce to BRP, networking technologies and requirements. electronic messaging protocols, Internet related technologies, vans, EDI, EFT, EDI translation standards and bodies, gateways, legal and security issues, implementation strategies and a number of topics. The material in the CD includes a number of pictures, diagrams and video clips to enhance the understanding of the subject by the reader.

The course matter on the CD might be very useful but the look and feel of the screen takes away the interest. The colour of the text and the navigation is not meant for an average user. The writers have assumed that a person going through the CD will have prior knowledge of the subject. Also, the pictures and diagrams open up in a window on the screen, which is smaller in size and always distracts attention while reading.

There are options like zooming in or out the picture window but one has to actually search for buttons to actually perform the desired action.

IT Encyclopaedia.com by Parag Diwan, R K Suri & Sanjay Kaushik; Pentagon Press; Rs 9,500 ( 10 volumes)