Hypertext and hypermedia are software technologies for multimedia presentation. By definition, hypertext contains only text and a limited amount of graphics.
Hypermedia are electronic documents that contain multiple forms of media, including text, graphics, video and so on.
Key topics and other presentation in hypertext or hypermedia documents are indexed by software links so that they can be quickly searched by the reader. For example, if you click your mouse button on an underlined term of hypermedia document, your computer may bring up another display using text, graphics and sound related to that term. Once you finish viewing that presentation, you can return to what you were reading originally, or jump to another part of the document.
Hypertext and hypermedia are developed by using software packages that rely on specialized programming languages like Java and the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), which create hyperlinks to other parts of a document or to other documents and multimedia files.
Hypertext and hypermedia documents can thus be programmed to let reader navigate though a multimedia database by following a chain of hyperlinks though various multimedia files.
The websites on the World Wide Web of the Internet are popular example of this technology. Thus, we use of hypertext and hypermedia software in Web browsers and other program provides an environment for online interactive multimedia presentations.
Multimedia Software Technologies
