Abstract: If we are to create effective multimedia authoring tools, we must avail ourselves of the various disciplines that we normally throw in the "someone-else's-problem" basket. Discourse theory, domain distinctives such as media aesthetics, human-computer interface issues, and multimedia data description standards all have a part to play. However, none of these fields stands still, so we need to continually query them for new insights that might impact our multimedia authoring endeavor. This paper is all about authoring multimedia authoring tools.