Microsoft Multimedia Viewer
{{Short description|Multimedia authoring tool by Microsoft}}
{{Infobox software platform
| name = Microsoft Multimedia Viewer
| icon = 32px
| image =
| caption =
| developer = Microsoft
| target = Microsoft Windows, Tandy Video Information System, Sony Multimedia CD-ROM Player
| editor = Microsoft Multimedia Viewer Publishing Toolkit
| runtime = Microsoft Multimedia Viewer
| format = MVB
| language =
| application = Reference work, encyclopedia
| status = Discontinued
| license = Proprietary
}}
Microsoft Multimedia Viewer or simply Viewer was a multimedia authoring tool for Windows built upon WinHelp online help format. The toolkit was used to develop Microsoft's early Windows CD-ROM reference titles like Encarta, Cinemania and Bookshelf, as well as for a number of third-party multimedia titles for Windows 3.1 like the CD-ROM edition of The Merck Manual.{{sfn|Pruitt|1994|pp=7-12}}
Just like WinHelp files, Viewer files were compiled from Rich Text Format (RTF) source documents. Users of both WinHelp and Multimedia Viewer authoring tools noted similarities between them.{{Cite book |last1=Milter |first1=Richard G. |title=Educational Innovation in Economics and Business III: Innovative Practices in Business Education |last2=Stinson |first2=John E. |last3=Gijselaers |first3=Wim H. |publisher=Springer Science & Business Media |year=2013 |isbn=9789401713887 |chapter=Development of the "Bread and Butter" Multimedia Business Cases}} Some tools for .htm file decompiling, like WinHelp Decompiler (open source) or Herd Software's [https://www.herdsoft.com/catalog/ehlp2rtf.html Help to RTF], can extract them from Viewer's .mvb files.
The development of Viewer, initially named "WinDoc" and "WinBook," began in 1989.{{sfn|Moody|1995|p=129}} The initial version was released in September 1991 as a part of the Multimedia Development Kit, with a version 2.0 announced in 1993. Software bundles which included the publishing toolkit were priced at $495 with a royalty-free runtime version.{{Cite news |last=Clancy |first=Heather |date=1991-09-02 |title=Development Kit Due This Month — Microsoft to ship multimedia tools |work=Computer Reseller News |publisher=CMP Publications, Inc. |issue=436 |quote=Microsoft is due to ship early this month the Multimedia Development Kit [...] The product will include Multimedia Viewer for building and distributing presentations that use sound, animation and video.}} A custom version of Viewer 2.0, limited to 25 topics, was included with a $39.95 tutorial book published in 1994 by the Waite Group.{{Cite news |last=Simon |first=Barry |date=1994-10-25 |title=Learning to Use a Programmer's Gem |pages=73 |work=PCMag |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZcHUWMdA1v4C&pg=PA73 |access-date=2022-04-20}}
In addition to titles for Windows-based PCs, Multimedia Viewer could compile titles for Tandy Video Information System and other Modular Windows systems, as well as Sony Multimedia CD-ROM Player, a portable MS-DOS-based CD-ROM XA reader released in 1992. Viewer did not support a concurrent CD-I data format, with Rob Glaser, Microsoft's vice president of Multimedia & Consumer Systems at the time, being dismissive of it as "not based on any standard."{{Cite news |date=1992-09-28 |title=Microsoft announced Multimedia Viewer... |volume=4 |work=Audio Week |publisher=Warren Publishing |issue=38}}
Reception
In a 1992 comparison of five multimedia authoring tools, including Authorware and Macromind Director, Jim Canning of InfoWorld awarded Viewer 1.0 the lowest score across the board. The journalist praised Viewer's full-text search ability and noted it's the only one reviewed which could be used to build hypertext. However, he criticized its lack of animation support and a "tedious and error-prone" word processor-based workflow.{{Cite news |last=Canning |first=Jim |date=1992-03-09 |title=Multimedia authoring tools |pages=80–93 |work=InfoWorld |editor-last=Kaliczak |editor-first=Anne |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7j0EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA76 |access-date=2022-04-20}}
While Viewer 1.0 was intended to be the main tool to build the original edition of Encarta, the encyclopedia's developers deemed it inadequate for the task. 34% of total Encarta code was added to build features which Viewer could not provide on its own, according to its developers’ accounts.{{sfn|Moody|1995|pp=39,43}} A preliminary version of Viewer 2.0 was made available to the Encarta team before the new version of the authoring tool was fully completed.
Notes
{{reflist}}
= Works cited =
- {{Cite book |last=Pruitt |first=Stephen |url=https://archive.org/details/microsoftmultime0000prui |title=Microsoft Multimedia Viewer How-To CD: Create Exciting Multimedia with Video, Animation, Music, and Speech for Windows |publisher=Waite Group Press |year=1994 |isbn=9781878739605 |location=Corte Madera, CA |language=en}}
- {{Cite book |last=Moody |first=Fred |url=https://openlibrary.org/books/OL1270724M/I_sing_the_body_electronic |title=I Sing the Body Electronic: A Year with Microsoft on the Multimedia Frontier |publisher=Viking |year=1995 |isbn=9780670848751 |ol=1270724M |language=en}}