Classic Computer Magazine Archive COMPUTE! ISSUE 139 / APRIL 1992 / PAGE S13

Five ways to create your own multimedia. (includes related article) (Compute's Getting Started with Multimedia)
by Heidi E.H. Aycock

You don't have to sit back and watch what other people are doing with multimedia. You can produce your own work with packages specially designed for Windows with Multimedia. Many packages, priced anywhere from $200 to $4000, promise to turn you into a multimedia master.

These authoring packages simplify the process of mixing and matching sound and graphics from various sources. Preserving your investment in pre-multimedia software, these programs allow you to generate data and graphics in other, non-MPC packages and then weave all the files together into a stunning presentation. You could take a graph created in Lotus 1-2-3, for example, and combine it with a recording of your voice as well as an animated clip about your booming business.

To make your life easier, these packages employ object-oriented authoring tools, so you simply click buttons, pull down menus, and draw boxes. Well, it's a little more complicated than that, but not as hard as you would expect. Some packages include templates; some include powerful animation tools. All of these pacakages can help you create impressive presentations with less effort than you can imagine.

Presentation and authoring software released for Windows with Multimedia includes Multimedia Tool-Book, a HyperCard-like construction set that lets you quickly create your own multimedia applications, from Asymetrix (110 110th Avenue, N.E., Suite 717, Bellevue, Washington 98006; 206-637-1500); Madison Ave., a low-cost tool tailored specially for the Ad Lib Gold sound card, although not limited to that audio board, from Eclipse Technologies (1221 West Campbell Road, Suite 125, Richardson, Texas 75080; 214-238-9944); Action!, a multimedia presentation package that includes more than 100 multimedia templates, a clip library, and Adobe Type Manager for sharp display fonts, from MacroMind (600 Townsend, Suite 310W, San Francisco, California 94103; 415-442-0200); Animation Works Interactive, a three-pronged package combining paint, animation, and presentation editing tools, from Gold Disk (20675 South Western Avenue, Suite 120, Torrance, California 90501; 213-320-5080); and Autodesk Multimedia editing package, and a library of animation and graphic clips, from Autodesk (2320 Marinship Way, Sausalito, California 94965; 415-332-2344).