The assembly and communication of multimedia information from a variety of
modalities to remote users with improved control is provided for by the
combined use of a browser enhancement module, such as a plug-in or
ActiveX control, and a server. The server includes a data interface for
acquiring the multimedia data and a storage unit for receiving and
storing the data. An assembly unit in the server gathers selected data to
form an e-mail package in response to instructions from a remote user
unit. The server further includes a processing unit to encode and
compress the data prior to packaging and an e-mail server to send the
package to the remote user unit or another designated user unit. Transfer
instructions for the server may be provided by the remote user unit
through a browser and the browser enhancement module. The browser
enhancement module is therefore configured to request a file from the
server, to decompress and decode received files and to transfer such
files along with a user interface to a display associated with the remote
user unit. The browser enhancement module is further adapted to send
instructions to the server to assemble and to e-mail selected data from a
file to another user unit.