 Multimedia is an interactive computer-mediated presentation that includes at least two of these elements here. Text, graphics, animation, sound and video. This unit discusses the central multimedia elements in the context of linguistics, with special emphasis on language documentation. That is the development of an entry for an audio-supported language database. Let us start with text elements. Creating and editing text for multimedia presentations is one of the most underestimated tasks of multimedia development. Text for multimedia is always intended for display on a monitor. Hard copy printing is almost never a consideration. Here are some principles of creating text that should strictly be adhered to. For example, we should minimize the text lengths on the web. We should avoid scroll bars in linguistic modules, for example, because users would be simply overwhelmed with the amount of text to be read on the screen. Text should also be modular. That is, each text block should be self-explanatory. Text should be interconnected with other media. Short texts often necessitate the integration of additional means of information. The final guideline is, of course, that we have to adhere to multimedia text design guidelines, which are not going into here. For example, things like typeface, size, color, weight, etc. A special problem in the context of language documentation is the use of exotic symbols. Well, here are some of them. For example, we have phonetic symbols, such as these here taken from the International Phonetic Alphabet. Or we may have symbols that belong to alphabetic writing systems like these here, but they are non-Roman. Here we have examples of the Cyrillic alphabet, of the Georgian alphabet, of the alphabet used in Hindi and characters used in Greek. Then look at the next set of symbols. These are, of course, taken from Chinese and they are logographic. So they have to be displayed in well-designed linguistic websites as well. And finally, we have characters whose orientation is not from left to right, but from right to left. And the abyad writing system used in Arabic, for example, is an example here. Let's next look at graphics. Now, depending on their function, still graphics, that is, graphics that, when nothing moves, can be grouped into three types. Graphic support, navigation, and illustration. Well, let's look at some examples here. Now, here you see an image of a speaker that is used for simple graphic support. In language recordings, it's a good idea to represent the speaker who was recorded. Or let's look at another example. Here you see navigation graphics, for example, arrows and home buttons, or simply icons that are used to remind the user of where he or she is. Well, and finally, we have illustrations. Now, it is a good idea to couple language index entries with photos about a specific location. So here you see pictures of the Persian capital Tehran which are presented in a photo show and which can be associated with the speaker whose version of Persian was recorded. Mostly, these graphics are bitmap graphics in formats designed to match the requirements of the internet. For example, we use the JPEG format or the GIF format or the PNG format. So these are common formats that are used for the representation of graphics on the web. Let's now look at animation. Now, animations are important in many ways. They can model theoretical processes, modeling. They can show paths of movement operations, and they can add fun to websites. So this is represented in gray here because this aspect should not be overemphasized. Let's again look at some linguistic examples. Now, here you have a typical example of a simple motion animation where we present diphthongel off-glides by means of an animation. Boy, you can see the off-glide, the transition from the nucleus to the off-glide by means of an animation path. The next example I would like to show represents some sort of shape animation which can be used to represent the movement of, for example, articulators in particular airstreams. Here is an example that represents the glottalic aggressive airstream that is used to produce ejective consonants. Again, my final example can be referred to as morphing where a sequence of different pictures is played so fast that we perceive it as a simple animation sequence. Now, this animation illustrates the descent of the larynx from Homo niana talensis to Homo sapiens. Normally, most animations are accompanied by a considerable degree of interactivity and in many cases, as you heard, by sound. So let's look at sound next. Now, the use of sound in a multimedia system, especially in a linguistic system where language is the focus of our research, has to follow a number of important guidelines. First of all, sound should not be used for the mere reason of generating sound effects like clicking noises in menus or sound that distracts the user from the content of what is going to be presented. And sound should always be controllable. So control is a key issue. Sound should be accompanied by volume controls, by on and off buttons and so on. Many websites not only neglect the sound option but violate these principles, for example, by getting on users' nerves with constant clicking noises in navigation menus. The following types of sounds can be defined and again, I'm using examples from the virtual linguistics campus. Now, the first type of sound I would like to discuss can be referred to as a simple interactive sound. Now, this is typically used on our vowel and consonantal charts where we can click a certain item that is associated with a particular sound. In addition to simple sounds, we have sound passages and there is one thing that is especially important for linguists. We want to show where we are within a particular text that is represented or synchronized with the sound. So we're using the following technique. Here is a sound passage. The north wind and the sun were disputing which was the stronger. Now here you see a bar, a bar which is synchronized with the sound so that linguists can select the sound and move to certain passages of the sound. So this is a very important thing. So let's move. Now here we can move through the text. Then the sun shined out warmly and so on. Now finally we have video as a multimedia element. Now video material should always be played within a video player that does not constantly remind the user to upgrade. A suitable option is to produce video material in such a way that it can be used on a barrier-free platform such as YouTube. The videos that are produced can be distinguished in two ways. On the one hand we can produce simple screen casts. I will show an example in a second. And then secondly we have complex videos. Now what are screen casts? Well everything I'm doing on this interactive whiteboard. So for example if I draw something and erase it again is recorded during this e-lecture. That is a cast of the screen is being taken. Typical applications in linguistics are linguistic software, linguistic tools. Well we should not really waste our time introducing students to the handling of software anymore in class meetings. This can be done very well in terms of screen casts. Now here you see a typical screen cast that is an introduction to a computer program and to the basic steps of using it. The program is Camtasia Studio by TechSmith. The program we are using to record e-lectures of this kind. This is what it's like. Now click the red record button or use the hotkey F9 and a 321 countdown appears. Then begin recording. Everything that happens on your screen and what you're saying into the microphone is recorded. Finally we have complex video clips. That is a full recording with a camera thus everything you're watching now. So now I'm very close to the camera and everything that is being recorded is added to the video clip and we combine it with screen casts as well. Let's summarize. Multimedia is an indispensable way of representing languages and linguistic data. We use all elements from text to video. However two aspects have not been mentioned in this e-lecture. The aspect of interactivity, controls and possible ways of interacting with the multimedia material and developmental aspects. That is how do we generate texts with exotic symbols? How do we develop animations, synchronized sounds and screen casts? These issues will be mentioned briefly in this introductory unit. And there will also be explained in detail in subsequent units of the virtual linguistics campus class Multimedia on the web with special emphasis on linguistics.