Each form of media presents information differently and motivates its use. Printed materials encourage scanning, reading as much as is necessary, then making a decision to learn more or go on. Computers tend to present focused information through words, spreadsheets, databases or other kinds of formats. The purpose of multimedia is to combine all of these so that the benefits of each can be used in a desktop environment. Together, it is called multimedia which can branch to a motion video presentation within a window on the screen, to text, or any combination including a live video telephone connection, perhaps with a content expert.
Interactive documents represent a shift in computer use because it becomes the delivery platform.
An interactive document requires the user's participation or it stops. You need to realize the key ingredient is control and not the sound and electronic fireworks. Everyone likes control. The Media Lab was formed in 1984 based on Negroponte's vision that all communication technologies were going through a joint metamorphosis which could only be understood properly if treated as a single subject, and only advanced properly if treated as a single craft. He has kept the efforts focused on the human and how humans converse.