You know the phrase: "I've got half a mind to..."? Well, if like us you sometimes find yourself under the genuine conviction that you really have only got half a mind, you can always attempt to expand it to somewhere near full capacity by sitting in front of your PC and absorbing some of the contents of this knowledge suite from Focus.

And those contents comprise of four programs, spread across five CD-ROMs. There's the Encyclopaedia Britannica 2006 Standard Edition, the Encyclopaedia Britannica Presents Human Body, the Concise Oxford English Dictionary 11th Edition and the Penguin Hutchinson Reference Suite. And priced at fifteen pounds, that little lot certainly sounds like darn good value for money.

Let's start with the Encyclopaedia Britannica: it's the 2006 version which contains some 43,000 articles. A neat tabbed interface allows multiple articles to be opened, there are plenty of images and some decent quality video is included, plus interactive time-lines. These explore various topics such as literature, religion and science, with a detailed historical time-line of events, all of which contain links to relevant entries in the encyclopaedia.

The full Britannica atlas is also included, along with a homework helper facility for students. This gives advice on various school subjects and offers links to online educational activities and games; a very smart touch. In fact, online links are provided throughout many of the encyclopaedia's articles, effectively bulking the content up further. Rounding off the program is Merriam-Webster's Dictionary and Thesaurus.

Of course, that dictionary is made rather redundant by the Concise Oxford English Dictionary which is included in the package, as its superior interface makes searching for words an easier task. Some word games (inspired largely by CountDown) are tacked on for good measure, too.

The Penguin Hutchinson Reference Suite contains nine books distilled onto disc, but it's old. It dates back about five years and this shows in the interface, which is poorly organised and bland-looking.

Books like the dictionary and thesaurus are upstaged by the fresher versions to be found in the other programs, and elements like the Hutchinson Internet Directory are obviously showing their age (although, to be fair, there weren't that many broken links). There are still some worthwhile areas, such as the dictionary of quotations, but Hutchinson is the weakest facet of this knowledge suite.

The Human Body is the final offering here, an exploration of the body via 3D models, but again it's a little long in the tooth and that's reflected in the presentation. There's some interesting information to be gleaned regarding organs and their functions, but it's fairly basic in nature and aimed more towards younger students than anybody else.

What you're really paying for here is the Encyclopaedia Britannica and Oxford English Dictionary, but for the money, that still makes for a compelling purchase. Any extra mileage you can squeeze out of the other two programs is just a bonus.

Even though some of the offerings here are so old they could probably run for leader of the Lib-Dems, this package is still a good buy purely on the basis that you get the excellent Encyclopaedia Britannica 2006 and the solid Oxford English Dictionary.