Microsoft's New eHow-tos

I thought adding animations, if not full videos, would be a good idea for computer ebooks. As it so happens, Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) has recently introduced what they call eHow-tos—multimedia documentation on various Windows software development topics. They are meant to be played in Windows Media Player, but the website says other JavaScript-capable media viewers would also work. I tried out several eHow-tos in Internet Explorer; for example, try the one on Creating a Bluetooth Application and you'll see how an ehow-to works. It's more of a video tutorial, but you see the code in the background screenshot with a smaller image of the speaker in the foreground, which seems quite effective. If you don't want to bother playing the eHow-to or don't have a suitable media player, here's a sample screen photo:

As the speaker explains the code, you can follow along in the screenshot in the background. The speaker can highlight parts of the code, point out specific items related to whatever is being discussed. When I was talking about interactive animations in computer ebooks, I was assuming simple animations, perhaps just the screen being captured with the mouse pointer highlighting code or pointing to specific parts as the ebook's text explained the concepts. I think full video with audio narration would be a bit much for computer ebooks, which may not be played in a full-blown media player; besides the file size would get bloated. Nevertheless, Microsoft's eHow-tos are an example of the new trend towards online multimedia tutorials and they're fun to watch—if you are into any kind of software development :-)

Tags: books ebooks epublishing multimedia tutorial ehowto microsoft msdn

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[bala murugan]

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