Macintosh version shipping, with a Windows version to follow in the first half of 1995.
Product Description
ClarisImpact software creates an entirely new category of productivity software for business and general users: Business Graphics Processing. Until ClarisImpact, users had to purchase, then master, a hodge podge of spreadsheet, charting, drawing and presentation applications to create, edit and communicate business graphics. Creating graphics with spreadsheets or underpowered charting programs is cumbersome and editing is limited. If the user is already in a report or slide and a change must be made to the graphic, they have to go back into the application where the graphic was created and edit the data. Cutting and pasting between programs not only decouples the graphic from the data source, but resolution is lost as well. Drawing applications used to edit these basic graphics suffer from growing complexity. Word processing and presentation tools don't support the range of chart types or depth of graphics tools a business user needs.
ClarisImpact unifies the create-edit-communicate process prevalent in today's business computing environments into one simple application. ClarisImpact automatically creates the graphics a user wants, allows for instant editing, and provides a completely integrated solution for communicating the graphics in text-based reports or slide presentations. Claris has leveraged its leadership in user interface design and cross-platform technology to bring business computing with graphics to a new level.
Key Features and Benefits
* Automatic graphics Models; create organizational charts, flow charts, timelines, network diagrams, data charts, graphs and calendars, with proper sizing and connectors.
* Intelligent editing; ClarisImpact automatically updates the graphic when changes are specified. Moving any connected object will result in the rejoining of connections. Dragging and dropping elements into any Model results in instant reordering, aligning and spacing. Style changes and edits are simply a matter of browsing an extensive list of pre-defined and custom styles, and applying a favorite with one click.
* Integrated word processing; create reports and memos with business graphics. No need to cut and paste graphics into a separate word processor. Automatic text-wrap around all graphics, footnotes, page numbers, font, style options, formatting and spell checking are included. Import support for MacWrite Pro, MS Word, WordPerfect and other formats included.
* Integrated presentations; create slide presentations with professionally designed backgrounds and special effects, all included in ClarisImpact. Use any of the business graphics in the same document, on the same page. Multi-media capabilities (Apple QuickTime video and sound), automatic slide builds, and transition effects within or between slides, auto-play and simple slide reorganization are included. Output choices allow the user to easily create overhead transparencies, on-screen presentations, handouts or slides.
* Professionally designed chart styles and artwork; 3,000 piece clip art library allows for easy, customized, flexible editing. Users can select from dozens of pre-defined styles and style "families" for both flexibility and consistency.
* Mix multiple graphics with text in the same report or presentation; graphics are always live -- the user can create or edit graphics directly in the report or slide.
* Claris Graphics Engine (CGE); provides seamless cross-platform (Macintosh and Windows) transparency with data and files between Claris graphics products, such as ClarisImpact for Mac and ClarisDraw for Windows, high performance and intelligence.
* Drawing tools built-in; create or customize graphics with the polygon, bezier, ellipse, line and rectangle tools. Fill color, gradient, pen and line style options included.
* File exchange capabilities; the XTND architecture is built in to ClarisImpact, and allows users to easily open, work with and save documents in a variety of industry standard file formats such as PICT, PICT2, MacDraw(R)Pro, MacDraw II, EPSF and other graphics and text file formats.
ClarisImpact Target Users
Business professionals, from administrative and clerical support to management-level professionals in corporations and government, higher education and small office/home office will benefit from productivity gains made by using ClarisImpact. Business users will be able to instantly access the Models and built-in intelligence in ClarisImpact to create and edit many different types of business graphics for reports and presentations.
Corporations and government agencies of all sizes and types will benefit from the features, cross-platform capabilities, flexibility, and especially productivity gains made from ClarisImpact. No big training investment, and no need to use multiple applications to create stunning reports and presentations.
In-box Support Materials
* Getting Started Guide
* User's Guide
* Sample files and pre-defined artwork and styles
* Context-sensitive Help system
Support Services
* Customer Relations; for registration and other non-technical information, phone lines are open from 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. PST, Monday through Thursday, 8 a.m. - 2 p.m. Friday. Phone: (800) 544-8554
* Technical Support; a dedicated team of technical support specialists are available to answer technical questions and solve issues. Phone lines staffed from 6 a.m. - 6 p.m. PST Monday through Thursday, 6 a.m. - 2 p.m. Friday. Phone: (408) 727-9054.
System Requirements, Compatibility
* Apple Macintosh Plus, Centris, Classic, LC, SE, Performa, PowerBook, II, Quadra families.
* Native version available for the PowerMacintosh family.
* Hard disk drive and 2MB of memory required for System 6.0.7 or later; 4MB for System 7.x
* Printers supported; Apple LaserWriter, Personal LaserWriter, ImageWriter and StyleWriter. Hewlett-Packard LaserJet, DeskWriter and PaintWriter families and 100% compatibles.
* Graphics file formats supported; EPSF, TIFF, PICT or PICT2, CGM, MacDraw II, MacDraw Pro, MacPaint, QuickTime Movie.