Ordnance Survey

To motorists, walkers, climbers and cyclists alike, the Ordnance Survey series of maps has been cartography's Holy Grail for some years now. So it would appear that Attica has achieved something of a coup in getting the company to provide the maps for its Atlas of Great Britain.

The CD covers the whole of Britain at scales of 1:625,000 (one inch to ten miles) and the more detailed 1:250,000 (1 inch to four miles). You can zoom in and out of the maps at these scales, and doing so often adds a little more detail to the display. A gazetteer of 45,000 places helps you zone into precisely the area you want, though it only lets you locate settlements and not natural features like lakes and mountains.

The detail on the maps is arranged in layers, which you can switch on and off depending on how much you want to see. You can include or exclude roads, settlements, water features, relief and Ordnance Survey symbols for things like lighthouses, picnic areas and camp sites. You can also choose to include or exclude media pins. These are markers which, when clicked on, call up further information about a location. Sometimes they reveal 3D landscape models, sometimes videos and animations, but most often they call up photographs and text. Bradford, for example, has a media pin which reveals a photo of an old building and some text describing the city's history as a mill town. Stonehenge is graced with a narrated video and there's a 3D relief map of Scafel Pike, England's highest mountain. The pins seem a little arbitrary, though. For example, there is, apparently, nothing at all of interest in Leeds.

A section on map skills teaches you how to understand grid references, contours and things like latitude and longitude. Each lesson includes some kind of test or activity to consolidate the learning, and there's a broader quiz that tests your general knowledge on each of the 11 regions of Britain against the clock.

In addition, there are two databases. One concentrates on Britain and provides statistical information on four topic areas: politics, population, climate and the land itself. The information is a little spartan, but more statistical details can be obtained from the second database which presents information on all EU countries. Here you can find out about literacy rates, land use, trade, life expectancy and compare it across EU member states.

A year ago, the Ordnance Survey Interactive Atlas of Great Britain would have seemed exciting and innovative, but today it has a dated feel. The interface, though pretty well designed, feels a little clunky. It often takes too long for maps to redraw when you zoom in, there aren't enough clickables and there isn't enough tourist information. These days, I expect to be able to click on an icon showing a caravan site and be presented with a contact phone number. As it is, this product falls between two stools. It can't compete with either the printed Ordnance Survey maps for pure provision of map information, or with tourism-orientated CD-ROMs.

Author: Sandra Vogel