Knowledge is more than a collection of facts. It also involves seeing connections and understanding trends and themes.

William Horton

Portals

Heba explains that portals are the spaces or windows on the computer screen in which the slides appear. Size, number, and placement are important considerations when designing a multimedia project. The size of the portal is important because the user must be able to see the information being presented. For example, if a film clip is shown in a 1" by 2" portal on the screen, a lot of the visual information will not be visible to the viewer, and the audio track will become the viewer's focus. Many multimedia programs that feature film will design the program for a full screen portal (132).

The number and placement of the portals is also important. Unlike the Microsoft Windows environment on a computer, where several windows can overlap one another, each portal in a multimedia presentation must be an autonomous entity, and not be interrupted or obscured by another portal. When designing a project, Heba suggests that not more than three or four portals should be on one screen. Portals should be placed in the center of the screen to focus the user's attention (132).