PRIVATE LIVES : To CD or Not CD-ROM? : That is the question, as the Bard goes multimedia in software that ranges from rudimentary text-only discs to packages that let you become a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company.

For countless students, back-to-school time means an introduction to Shakespeare. This is not welcome news to those who think of his 400-year-old plays only as examples of slow pacing and bad dialogue. Even those who may recognize the Bard’s value may have trouble accessing his works.

It might not be their fault: Shakespeare productions are often presented as deadly museum pieces that are about as lively as study hall.

But what if Shakespeare went multimedia, with fine actors speaking the parts as viewers follow the text on the screen? What if the click of a mouse could conjure up a film clip of a scene, get explanations for unfamiliar terms or call up expert commentaries to explain a passage’s meaning and relevance?

What if a multimedia Shakespeare production even allowed students to take on one of the roles in the company of professional Shakespearean actors?

Voyager’s “Macbeth,” which aspires to do all these things, has been one of the most eagerly awaited educational CD-ROMs since it was announced last year. After several delays, it finally made it into software stores and the warehouses of mail-order houses this month.

Unfortunately, it is in many ways disappointing, especially considering all the sound and fury of the hype that preceded its release. But this CD-ROM, and a handful of other Shakespeare-themed software products on the market, can help students unearth the riches, vibrancy and timelessness of the Bard’s works.

The Voyager “Macbeth” includes a full-length audio performance by no less than the Royal Shakespeare Company, with Ian McKellen and Judi Dench in the lead roles and direction by Trevor Nunn.

But when the project was announced, Voyager officials said it would include the video too, much in the way its CD-ROM of the Beatles’ “A Hard Day’s Night” lets viewers watch the movie in one corner of the screen while following along with the script.

When the “Macbeth” CD-ROM was released, however, a Voyager spokesman said that the video was abandoned because of technical limitations. And it’s true that live-action video, now limited to postage-size windows on the screen, is not of sterling quality. But even a somewhat blurry view of actors performing the lines would have added much to the experience.

Still, it is nice to hear these actors speak the lines, and it is possible to listen to an entire performance of the play while following along (the pages of the text turn automatically).

Using any other feature of the disc, such as clicking on a word to see its annotation, causes the performance to be interrupted. Better to first go through the play piece by piece, digging into the richly rewarding annotations, essays and commentaries, and then play the performance for the added insights the reading can offer.

Then there’s the real interactive ability--Voyager calls it “Macbeth Karaoke.” The user can play Macbeth or Lady Macbeth, reciting lines with an experienced actor. It’s fun but limited, as it can be used on only two scenes.

Some film clips are included in the Voyager “Macbeth,” and their use on the CD-ROM is the most exciting and evocative feature of the program. There are short clips from film adaptations of “Macbeth” by Orson Welles, Akira Kurosawa and Roman Polanski. In each case we get to see how the directors interpreted the witches’ scene near the beginning of the play. Sure, the clips are blurry, but it’s fascinating to see how very different their approaches were.

This “Macbeth,” currently available only for the Macintosh platform, lists for $49.95. Despite its unimaginative use of the medium, the CD-ROM from Voyager (800-446-2001) does provide a good deal of background to the computer-equipped student who wishes to brush up on Shakespeare.

Other Shakespeare-themed programs are less ambitious:

BookWorm Electronic Books (800-845-1755) has “Macbeth,” “Hamlet,” “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and “Romeo and Juliet” on CD-ROMs for Windows and Macintosh. With no film clips and only a few bits of audio included, the main feature of these programs is their annotations. For example, click on Macbeth’s first line, “So foul and fair a day I have not seen,” and up pops the information:

“By having Macbeth echo the Weird Sisters--before he has even seen them--Shakespeare gives us a subtle indication that Macbeth is already connected to the strange fate and supernatural powers represented by the Sisters. The surface meaning of his comment, of course, is merely, ‘The day is foul because of the weather but fair because of our great victory.’ ”

The BookWorm titles are easy to use but expensive for what they offer. The four Shakespeare plays together on one disc list for $79.95. Separately, they are each $49.95.

Shakespeare on Disk (800-446-2089) has 60 software products that are sold mostly to schools. In its catalogue are three “Macbeth” titles: “Shakespeare’s Macbeth,” “Macbeth Study Questions” and a third product that combines those two. Again, the products are pricey, with individual copies of the third going for $99 in either DOS or Macintosh versions.

The cheapest way to go, electronically for a commercial product, is a $19.95 CD-ROM sold by the mail-order company Computer Direct (800-289-9473). It has almost no features but reportedly includes the complete text of Shakespeare’s plays, all on one DOS-platform disc.

Finally, for no fee if you have access to the Internet, you can download not only the text of just about any Shakespeare play but also several scholarly essays (mostly from the electronic files of various universities) about the playwright’s works.