This information was provided by Claris Corporation on 16 March 1998, and incorporated into Apple Computer's Tech Info Library.
"At a time when the number of companies with less than 20 employees comprise about 90 percent of the business market ClarisWorks Office, with its compact size and exciting new features, sets the office suite standard for todayÕs small business user." said Dominique Goupil, Claris president. "Small businesses need to watch their expenses and really make sure theyÕre getting value for their dollar; for them, ClarisWorks Office fits the bill perfectly."
Designed to deliver all the office needed for small business, home or education users who want productivity but do not have dedicated support technicians to back them up, ClarisWorks has attracted more than 15 million users worldwide with its ease-of-use and award-winning seamless integration of powerful productivity tools. Earlier this year ClarisWorks 4.0 was rated by small businesses as more reliable, easier to learn, offering more value for the money and higher general satisfaction than Microsoft Office in a study by Dataquest, a Gartner Group Company.
Beta tester Jim Erwin, president of sYnapse Software, Inc. in Rochester, New York, believes other office suites are too cumbersome for most small businesses. "ClarisWorks Office is the best piece of software ever created for small business. It combines capability with power and flexibility that's just not matched. All the clumsy office 'bloatware' suites just don't do it for the vast majority of small business people," said Erwin. "ClarisWorks Office is simple, it's powerful, and it has tremendous capabilities �? a database, spreadsheet, word processing, graphics, and macro capability �? all rolled into one extremely well integrated package."
Everything users need for productivity on the desktop and on the Web
With full-featured productivity tools, customized documents, plus the power of the Internet, ClarisWorks Office enables users to create everything from memos to presentations, customer lists to mailing labels, letters to school term papers, custom Web pages to invitations, balance sheets to home budgets, and business reports to family newsletters.
ClarisWorks Office consists of:
ClarisWorks 5.0: The new version of the smartest all-in-one productivity software, which features enhancements to word processing, spreadsheet, graphics and database software; powerful presentation capabilities; and Internet enabling that lets users create links to the Internet from documents �? all in a single, easy-to-use program that offers instant access to all features and the ability to combine words, graphs, tables, photo images, and even video, on a single page.
JIAN BusinessBasics (Claris Edition): More than 60 business documents: agreements, worksheets and checklists covering sales, marketing, finance, accounting, management and operations provide effective, time-saving ways to manage and grow emerging and existing small businesses.
Ready-to-use documents: 175 ready-made customizable ClarisWorks documents including: newsletter layouts, financial worksheets, databases, presentations, Web page templates and more enable any user to instantly create professional-looking documents for business, home or school.
Claris Home Page Lite: Establishing a presence on the Web is simple with this powerful authoring tool that lets users build dynamic Web pages in minutes �? without learning HTML programming.
Internet connection software: Users can be up and surfing, exchanging email and creating a presence on the Internet quickly and easily with a choice of either NETCOM's Internet Suite, NETCOMplete or EarthLink Network's TotalAccess software. Both services include browser software. ClarisWorks Office users who subscribe to NETCOM's SOHO hosting service for six months will receive a free set-up and one free month of service. U.S. users who subscribe to EarthLink's Internet access will receive a free set-up and one free month of access. Canadian users should call EarthLink at 800/395-8410 for special prices.
Right tools at the right time
Rather than bombarding users with thousands of features they must pay for but will never use �? and that take valuable RAM and disk space �? ClarisWorks Office presents the tools users need, when they need them, saving time and enhancing productivity. The new fully customizable, context-sensitive ClarisWorks button bar provides users with the appropriate tools for the task and enables them to build their own desktop "control center" with custom buttons for launching other applications, documents, and Web sites. Users can also set up a button bar that will travel with a document �? so the right shortcuts are there when needed.
ClarisWorks Assistants offer detailed, friendly help with layout, design and content in the automated creation of everything from newsletters and tables to mailing labels and business cards. New contextual help within ClarisWorks makes it simpler than ever to get answers quickly from any dialog box.
The new robust ClarisWorks HTML translator with support for GIF and JPEG images, background images, and tables makes it a snap to create documents for the Internet. Ten new ClarisWorks templates for quickly creating single page Web sites help even the most novice users easily create their own Web pages. And, when users are ready to publish multiple page sites, Claris Home Page Lite offers the Web authoring tools they need.
ClarisWorks 5.0: More power and compatibility plus Internet enabling and linking
The foundation of the ClarisWorks Office product, ClarisWorks 5.0 offers significant new features that deliver more power at users' fingertips. In addition to the button bar which brings one click access to 150 of the most commonly used features, ClarisWorks 5.0 includes an improved text ruler featuring new tab and margin guidelines for aligning text easily and access to text attributes such as font, size and style. Users can also now specify a default font for all their documents and password-protect confidential documents.
The spreadsheet now supports named ranges so users can create easy-to-understand formulas that make data sharing simpler. In addition, the more than 100 functions included in the spreadsheet have been categorized for easier access. As important data comes in many forms, the database now supports multimedia fields including pictures and QuickTime movies. More than 600 new clip art images (over 1100 total) are available to illustrate any ClarisWorks 5.0 document.
Users can now also create Internet-enriched documents that include references and links to Web sites, easily link related documents, and facilitate navigation within larger documents through new Web and document linking capabilities in ClarisWorks 5.0.
When sharing data with associates or friends who use other productivity software such as Microsoft, Lotus, and Corel products, ClarisWorks 5.0 makes it simple with translators created exclusively for ClarisWorks Office by DataViz, makers of the popular MacLinkPlus and Conversions Plus translation products. ClarisWorks 5.0 also continues to be the only productivity suite that delivers complete cross-platform compatibility with no translation required.
Excellent value
ClarisWorks Office has a lower initial retail cost than traditional suite products and its usability and integration are designed to lower training and support costs as well. ClarisWorks also continues to require modest computing power: 8 MB RAM and 68 MB of disk space for a full install including all clip art and templates, less than one half the disk space of Microsoft Office 97, so users are much less likely to require costly hardware upgrades to be productive.
The U.S. estimated retail price for the Windows 95/NT 4.0 version of ClarisWorks Office is $79, with an upgrade/trade up rebate of $20. The U.S. estimated retail price for the Mac OS version is $99, with an upgrade/trade up rebate of $30. U.S. users of previous versions of ClarisWorks can upgrade to just ClarisWorks 5.0 for $49.
Availability and system requirements
Windows systems require Microsoft Windows 95 or NT 4.0 and a 386 or newer processor; Macintosh requirements are Mac OS System 7.0.1 or later and a 68020 or newer processor. On all platforms, ClarisWorks Office requires a CD-ROM drive and 8 MB of RAM and 21 MB of hard disk space for a minimal installation.
For more information, call 1-800-544-8554 or visit the new ClarisWorks Office Web site at http://www.claris.com/clarisworks. ClarisWeb, the Claris World Wide Web home page, is located at http://www.claris.com.
Claris is among the world's largest vendors of productivity software for personal computers, based on total revenue. Claris Corporation, a leading vendor of cross-platform software for business, education and home, has headquarters in Santa Clara, Calif. Note to editors: Visit the Claris media center on the Web at http://www.claris.com/news/press.
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©1997 Claris Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Claris and ClarisWorks are registered trademarks and Claris Home Page is a trademark of Claris Corporation. Apple, Macintosh, Mac and QuickTime are registered trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc. EarthLink Network is a registered trademark and TotalAccess is a trademark of EarthLink Network, Inc. NETCOM and NETCOMplete are trademarks of NETCOM On-Line Communication Services, Inc. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners. An account with an Internet service provider is required for Internet and Web related functions.
Media contact:
Veronica Skelton
Sydney Communications
415/434-8227
vskelton@sydneycomm.com