The term Multi-Media, which was used during the 1970`s to describe a particular theatre-based film and slide-show collage experience, has now been shortened to just the word "multimedia". From the mid 80`s through the late 90`s, the prevalent meaning of multimedia was a category of "authoring" software that allowed designers to develop interactive computer programs without having to have advanced programming skills. This category of software still exists, and is sometimes referred to as multimedia, but the term is now used to more generally describe nearly every hardware or software technology that displays images or plays sounds. Multimedia today refers not only to what is presented through computers, but also through the composition of text and illustrations in print media.