Multimedia Authoring News & Views Book Review

Multimedia Authoring Scott Fisher by Marcia Coulter, Senior Member, STC Chicago Chapter Multimedia Authoring by Scott Fisher. AP Professional (a division of Harcourt Brace & Company), 1994. ISBN 0-12-257560-1, $36.95. Originally published in News & Views November 1995 issue. Copyright 1996 STC-Philadelphia Metro Chapter. For permission to reprint this article, contact the Managing Editor.

So, you've decided that it's time to create your own crash course in multimedia development. Should this book be on your reading list? If your objectives include learning about multimedia development tools and their capabilities, or selecting the tools best suited to your projects, then find another book. If you are a true believer in the Macintosh-versus-PC wars, then find another book (this one is filled with Macintosh examples and screens). On the other hand, if your objective is to learn about the process of multimedia development, then Multimedia Authoring by Scott Fisher is a good place to start. In this book, Fisher tells how to: Determine whether multimedia is right for your projects. Analyze the audience. Use storyboarding to create a multimedia document with impact. Determine the size of a topic, as well as to what topics it should be linked. Structure the information in your database. Guide the user through your multimedia document. Along the way, Fisher talks extensively about the problem of context in multimedia (and hypertext) documents. In printed materials, context is provided by the user's previous readings. Print writers order their presentation and expect readers to follow it. By contrast, multimedia writers can't depend on readers to read topics in a preset order. Readers can--and do--drop in anywhere at any time, expecting instant understanding. Some of Fisher's suggestions for dealing with this issue are new; others (such as creating a task-oriented database) are gratifyingly familiar. All are helpful. Examples and exercises Multimedia Authoring includes lot of engaging, enlightening examples. Fisher visits two development projects for examples (a multimedia recipe set and a multimedia guide to restoring and maintaining MGB sports cars) again and again throughout the book. As he does, he invites us to consider how audience analysis, subject complexity, and topic dependencies can affect the structure of a multimedia document. The exercises included in each chapter are as well constructed as the examples. In the chapter on modules and links, for example, Fisher leads the reader to experiment with topic groupings. Early in the book, Fisher states that one of his goals is to shorten the reader's learning curve by at least one production cycle. The final chapter provides major assistance in that direction. It includes checklists and questions for document analysis, development staff roles, authoring system analysis, delivery system analysis and resources, as well as a generalized project timeline.

Return to . . .

[News & Views] [STC-PMC Home] [STC Home Page]
Last updated: November 6, 1996 (wq)