The availability, variety, and quality of specialized instructional multimedia has increased dramatically during the past few years. In addition, many instructors are producing customized instructional multimedia for their own courses. During the past twelve months, the author has begun the design and production of an interactive multimedia program for use in the Principles of Biology I course taught at the University of Kentucky. Whether using a commercially purchased program or a custom designed program it is important to link the use of the multimedia to the course instructional objectives. Multimedia is a tool for teaching, not necessarily a solution for teaching problems. Multimedia is only as effective as the instructor using it is. The instructor must distinguish between entertaining the students and teaching the students. It is very easy for the message of the material to be lost in the gimmicks and glitz of the program package. Great care must be taken when choosing and/or designing multimedia for instructional purposes.