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I am writing here my very own opinion (good or bad) and it should be taken like that - as a personal opinion. In fact you might find some tools I don't like quite amazing. If you don't agree with that click back button now.

Macromedia Director
One might say it is a mother of authoring tools. This is not true of course but it is pretty close. Director was a first big authoring tool I was using. It was version 5.0, crashing often but I was able to do some nice stuff. However the Lingo language is strange to anybody who used other programming language (they decide to make language close to the spoken English (silly idea)) Unfortunately you can't go without it. However once you learn it you are the Man and you can do almost anything you like (and for PC as well as for MAC !). Also you have many books about Lingo - so the learning doesn't have to be that bad. Well it is a bit expensive ($995) to use it for autorun CD...but there are also many games done in Macromedia Director. And at last - Macromedia is good stable company and I like some of their other products as well.

Macromedia Authorware
I wasn't patient enough to get into it... and really speaking I deleted the demo from my HD before it was able to show something. I guess Authorware has its potential for CBT (computer based training) but generally I don't like the flow chart programming. Also it is much more expensive than Director ($2713.99 ) and this will tell you it is not for beginners.

Asymetrix ToolBook
There were few multimedia encyclopedias done in ToolBook in the past.. However Asymetrix goes totally in the CBT and OnLine learning. I have my own copy of one old ToolBook and I must say it has all the good features in it. They also made few other simple yet powerful authoring apps (Action!), but they are now only memories..

GLPro
This is more multimedia language than visual tool, but very powerful. I have been contacted by some people from GLPro and we exchanged some e-mails. They are nice people (important) and we even get into few discussions...
The list of theirs customers shows this is really wide-used programming language and also the features are impressive and I am sure there is a lot of good programming involved. It is not a visual tool and I never did anything in it because I have enough programming..., but if you are trying to do multimedia programming in C++ or VB, you might better forgot about all and get GLPro instead.

DemoShield
First time I didn't like it at all (version 3), but when my former employer asked me to make a demo of one software product I get it (version 4.something) and it turned to be a very good choice. I did a few demos and 2 commercial CD's with demoshield. The trusty 4.x version was amazing - the designer really NEVER crashed (That's only one app I remember). However after version 5.x graphic engine or something other and couple of times when page should appear I see a black screen. Other time in designer it draw the page on wrong place in the screen (even over menu and toolbar). Of course I contacted them and even sent them some JPG's. The Support told me I don't have enough memory (128MB, P333) but it was enough just for one version earlier! I still think it is a very good app and I continued to using it anyway, now they have version 6.0 and they (finally) make a better interface in the designer. If you doing a demo of some software and it should move, show, jump, flash screenshots - this would be my first choice. ($399)

NeoBook Pro
This was in fact the first multimedia tool I ever seen. It was like in 1990 still for dos and it was quite amazing. Now it runs on windows (surprisingly the look didn't change that much) and it cost more ($199) It has also DDE, Script language etc..
I would say it is great app for projects which is text based (because of hyperlinks, text search etc..), less for eye catching stuff. You can create Stand-Alone EXE, but it actually secretly unpack itself in some place of your harddisk to the original form... It is a pity that application with such long history basically didn't change much in the years and offer mostly what Neobook was offering ten years ago.

FormulaGraphic
This is (was) in some meanings similar product to MMB, mainly because of price and the shareware form. However it uses a bit different principle and it is not straightforward for me. It has also many features MMB is missing (like object transitions, Java class export etc..) I was first impressed, but I couldn't create anything meaningful without reading a help file (which I never read as many fellows here) so I never use it and got Demoshield instead. I wrote WAS in the first sentence because I believe the FG is dying, they have amazing Java engine and they do some other programs with it (Cool Button) so I don't think the main app for them is FG.

Illuminatus
I tried it and it looked fine, it have all the tools you need, it worked, well try it for yourself... I wasn't impressed but I wasn't disappointed, I just didn't have enough time to look at it....
It has all standard tools but each object has tens of parameters - so it is kind of hard to use at first. But sure you will manage it. Most of the comments are technical - I mean I would do many things differently....

Dazzler
Same idea as Authorware, but much cheaper. Drawing Flow charts instead of programming etc... not that easy to be in love with that stuff. The version 3.0 was free in some UK computer magazines, The 4.0 is expensive but it has very cool 3D movie like effects. You can't do anything without learning and reading manual first! Not a 5 min apps...

Multimedia Fussion
Oh well...as I read the features this looks like Director or even better but for $99. Well you will spend few nights trying to do your first "Hello world" app.
I wasn't able to do anything as I installed it, the book was worthless but it had talking-showing-clicking tutorial on one CD. I wasn't able to run the Designer and tutorial at the same time so first I watched the tutorial and then I tried to repeat it. It didn't worked. Also the designer for some reason needs a big resolution screen, otherwise the toolbars and listbox takes half of the workspace.
The roots of MF are in Klik & Play from Click team (the authoring tool for games) then it gets to the Corel - Click & Create (for games and other stuff) and then it ended-up in IMSI as MF (for profi presentations) and then the project is basically dumped. But it is still the same app which was created for making arcade games!!!!(People in IMSI do you hear me!!) It is totally wrong to sell it as a professional tool for presentations (when did you need in your presentation collision detection, bouncing missiles, joystick support etc...) So I would say this is the best example of wrong marketing and for many people also wasting their money. (I wanted to use MF instead of Demoshield) Actually it wasn't that bad for me at the end because it had very cool music loops on the second CD which I used fully in one of my commercial project so the $99 was paid off.
I also have Corel Click & Create which is the same but older and in different shade of pink (maybe less buggy) and menus don't take half of the workspace. However C&C was missing even the worthless manual in the box so I still have no idea how to use it. But once I will make my very own shoot-them-all arcade game....maybe not.

Creator PRO
This I tested recently... It has most of the features you need even I didn't find in my limited time a way how to work with the script. And it is not expensive (less than $200) so you might try it.
I didn't really tested it, so try it by your self. The most impressive stuff for me was the splash screen, very well done.

I am a proud owner of a licence for MMB. I note that you list Neobook Pro and Multimedia Fusion on the web page as being 'big' tools and therefore somehow better at big jobs than MMB.
I have used both and neither compares to your MMB for ease of use and intuitiveness - and I have used MMB for a reasonably large CBT product. Keep up the good work. I am a big fan!

Rgds - Glenn Jones
Beacon Analysis & Research

Other Multimedia Programs (P)reviews

Other Multimedia Programs
(P)reviews