How to Embed Audio and Video into a Text Document?

[jebus197]

Hi does anyone know of a way to produce a true multimedia document that allows one to quickly embed text, audio and video within it's content? I know that this can be done via HTML/web programming, however I know little or nothing of HTML/web design - and in any case I'm not quite sure that this is exactly what I'm after.

I guess the closest thing I've seen to what I want is something along the lines of Encarta Encyclopedia (although I suspect that this may work via HTML also). But it is a very dry style of document presentation that I after. I suppose I am looking for something that looks much more like a book, which will allow sound files to play when I hover over certain words etc. and which will display videos in an in line/wrap around way in a similar way to he way that many magazine articles are written and that display images closely embedded alongside text.

I tried this with Word 2007, but it didn't work very well.

I guess the idea of true multimedia documents aren't so popular now, as they have been replaced almost exclusively with HTML. But really I am looking for something that works more to bring a document or a story to life, rather than simply using hyperlinking to link to new sources of information. Think of it more along the lines of a talking book, with embedded text, video and audio and you will probably get more of an accurate picture of what I'm after.

[pyehac]

The only app I can think of that can do this instead of Word, is Powerpoint.

[jebus197]

Powerpoint does allow the ability to easily embed text or video - but I don't think it is useful for creating mutimedia book type projects. Word doesn't really seem to do so nearly as cleanly.

[Slimy]

Microsoft Publisher? You can always just use publisher/dreamweaver, you don't really need HTML knowledge to use them.

[jebus197]

Publisher doesn't do too good a job of embedding videos and audio as far as I can see either. The layout I have in mind is more like an article in a magazine. If you hover on a word for a few seconds, a sound file will play, likewise if you hover on an image (if the image contains and embedded video also) the video will play. If you do this with publisher (again as far as I can tell) it seems to open these audio and video files in a separate media player - which isn't much use.

Think of it as buying a book from a bookstand and when you open it and touch a particular word, or an image a piece of audio or video will begin to play. (Which BTW it would be cool if this did exist - I mean a book that just looked and felt like a book, but which could play embedded audio and video too). I know I can't have that, but I would like something that looks as close as that as I can get on a PC.

[Evolution]

I think the new PDFs are capable of embedding both audio and videos. However the software is a bit expensive...

[jebus197]

Mmm... I don't mean to be overly fussy, but a PDF still doesn't look much like a book. The ideal sulution would be Microsoft Word, but with the ability to cleanly embed video and audio in the way I have described.

Edit:

It is however the best I have seen, I had a look and it looks pretty cool, so it will do for now.

Edited October 9, 2007 by jebus197