Medi8or 3

Other events include the ability to play MIDI files, CD audio, display an index, search through a video clip, change or move the cursor, print out, log to or read a file and run another program. Two of the most powerful actions are Animate and Timeline. Now Timeline allows you to specify a sequence of actions to take place one after the other, and it's particularly useful for displaying a page object by object or for specifying a complex series of actions activated by a single event.

The Animate action really means 'Move'. By specifying points between which an object can move, simple effects can be achieved. Although there isn't a facility for cel-based animation, the effect can be produced by using the Timeline action, but this lack of support for real animation will close the door to many commonly used effects in multimedia.

A multimedia tool isn't complete without some means of receiving typed information from the user, and the Input tool serves this very purpose. It works reasonably well and can be used with the If-Then-Else action to cause an appropriate response. Medi8or supports user-defined variables, so it could be used to develop a fully fledged interactive educational or training application.

MatchWare takes the unusual step of describing all the limitations of the product on its Web site. For instance, it can't pass commands directly to DLLs or to MCI and there are a variety of other minor limitations, although some of these would only be used by a minority of authors anyway.

MatchWare Medi8or is probably the easiest to use true multimedia authoring tool available. It has some limitations, but unless you have demanding or specialist needs you'll hardly notice them. Medi8or is heartily recommended, especially at this price.

Author: Kevin Partner