1. Notion of multimedia document

The word document comes from the Latin documentum, which has a root docere, meaning to teach. It is a meaningful object used to transmit knowledge, know-how or, more generally, information. A document is often inseparable from the medium on which it is conveyed, such as paper or a computer file, which gives it a form of permanence or stability over time. The information carried on this medium is inscribed in the form of various symbols such as characters, glyphs, figures, diagrams, tables, annotations and so on.