REDMOND, Wash., March 18, 1997 — Leading software vendors and content providers, including Borland International Inc., The Carsey-Werner Company, Macromedia Inc., the Powersoft division of Sybase Inc., Time Warner Inc., Wired Digital and ZDNet announced their intent to support Microsoft® Dynamic HTML in future products and Web Sites. Microsoft Corp.’s implementation of Dynamic HTML, developed in collaboration with the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), builds on standard HTML through an open, language-independent object model. This new approach allows scripts or programs to change any element including style, content and structure of a Web page, even after load time, without forcing the browser to fetch a new page from the Web server. Dynamic HTML also lets Web pages incorporate business data and multimedia effects so they can rival high-quality interactive CD-ROM games and business productivity applications.
“I was blown away by the capabilities of Microsoft’s Dynamic HTML,” said Bobby Chowdhury, vice president of technology and information systems at United Media (http://www.unitedmedia.com/) , publisher of The Dilbert Zone and Snoopy’s Doghouse. “My business is cartoons. With Dynamic HTML’s multimedia effects, I can now make a character sing and dance without having to download large files or multimedia plug-ins.”
“Using Dynamic HTML’s support for business data, Web designers can easily create business applications that deliver optimized client and server performance to better meet customer needs,” said Bob Zurek, vice president of research and technology for Sybase Inc.’s Powersoft development tools ( (http://www.powersoft.com/) ). “Powersoft’s RAD Web development tool, PowerSite, will take full advantage of Dynamic HTML and enable developers to quickly create content-driven business applications for the World Wide Web.”
The support announced today from leading development and design tool vendors will let developers and Web designers easily author rich content using the tools they already know. Microsoft’s Dynamic HTML will be provided to customers for the first time in Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 on the Windows® 95, Windows NT® and Windows 3.1 operating systems, Macintosh, and leading commercial UNIX systems. Dynamic HTML will also be available as free reusable components that developers can incorporate in their own applications.
“Microsoft’s Dynamic HTML lets designers quickly build sophisticated multimedia pages with high-quality graphics, such as those created using Shockwave Flash,” said Norm Meyrowitz, chief technical officer and general manager of the Internet and multimedia business at Macromedia Inc. ( (http://www.macromedia.com/) ). “We’re also excited to be supporting Dynamic HTML in our Backstage professional HTML/site creation tool, making it easier than ever for designers to access the rich interactive capabilities of HTML.”
“We’re constantly adding new games to the Riddler site,” said Tim Arnold, a senior programmer at Interactive Imaginations Inc. ( (http://www.riddler.com/) ). “Microsoft Dynamic HTML lets us develop even more innovative, multiplayer arcade-style games. These kinds of games would be harder to build with Layers. Microsoft Dynamic HTML also gives us a choice of which scripting language we want to use.”
“The HomeArts female audience has responded enthusiastically to our interactive features,” said Mark Avnet, director of production/executive producer for Hearst New Media/HomeArts Network ( (http://www.homearts.com/) “Using Microsoft’s Dynamic HTML, we can make our articles come alive. If a reader moved her cursor over a headline, she could change the style or content of the article immediately – without a server delay. We’re reassured by Microsoft’s work with the W3C. It’s good to know that Microsoft Dynamic HTML is fully standards-based, and it doesn’t rely on proprietary extensions like Layers.”
Standards-Based Technology
Microsoft’s implementation of Dynamic HTML is 100 percent compatible with existing W3C Recommendations to ensure developers and designers the broadest level of interoperability with third-party products. Dynamic HTML adheres to the HTML 3.2 and Cascading Style Sheets 1.0 Recommendations as well as the Document Object Model that Microsoft and SoftQuad jointly proposed to the W3C. Designers and developers can access Dynamic HTML’s open and standards-based programmable objects through all scripting languages including JavaScript and Visual Basic® , Scripting Edition, and can extend Dynamic HTML using Java
™
Applets and ActiveX
™
Controls.
“Microsoft’s commitment to open standards for the Internet is real and deep,” said Brad Silverberg, senior vice president of the applications and internet client group at Microsoft. “This issue is so critical to the viability of the Web that we’ve made an explicit pledge to support all W3C standards for HTML. This is a pledge that we believe all Internet technology vendors need to take. Without this commitment from our industry, interoperability across products from different vendors will continue to be a customer nightmare.”
A New Level of Interactivity for Web Pages
Dynamic HTML provides the following benefits to Web designers and developers:
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Creative content with “snap.” Designers can now dynamically alter the appearance and content of Web pages in response to user events. For instance, a user can expand or contract a table of contents by moving a cursor over headings and text. Also, by passing the cursor over selected text, the user can change the text’s color, font size or style. These interactions can occur without a server round trip, even after the page loads, because Dynamic HTML exposes the content of a Web page as a collection of extensible, scriptable objects.
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Rich multimedia and layout. Web designers can create a rich user experience through multimedia effects and layout capabilities without requiring users to download large bitmaps or executables. Multimedia effects include moving sprites, dynamic multichannel audio mixing, transition effects, vector graphics, low-bandwidth images and more. Through x-, y- and z-order absolute positioning, a user could drag and drop an icon representing a piece of merchandise on a Web page without having to communicate with the Web server.
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Support for business data. Designers can provide pages that organize data “on-the-fly,” without requiring a round trip to the server. For example, a user can dynamically sort a list of stock quotations by price or by price/earnings ratio, without requiring complex Java
™
programming or abandoning the display richness of HTML. -
Lower server load. Dynamic HTML gives developers the choice of creating dynamic content on the client or on the server, optimizing for the best user experience. When processing occurs on the client, no round trips need to occur, eliminating additional network traffic, latency and server load.
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Downlevel support for multiple browsers. Many Dynamic HTML interactive features gracefully degrade to a static experience in earlier browsers. This allows authors to write and publish a single page to target browsers of multiple and varying capabilities.
Availability
Dynamic HTML will be available in the Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 Platform Preview release, which Microsoft intends to ship before the end of March. Dynamic HTML will be featured in all versions of Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 and will be a freely redistributable component that third parties can incorporate in their applications. Online demonstrations of Microsoft Dynamic HTML will be available at http://msdn.microsoft.com/downloads/ with Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 Platform Preview release.
More information can be found at these sites:
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.
(Dynamic HTML Fact Sheet, including a competitive comparison) -
(Dynamic HTML White Paper)
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“MSFT”
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More Industry Support for Microsoft’s Standards-Based Dynamic HTML
“Microsoft’s Dynamic HTML brings an awesome level of functionality and flexibility to the Web. With Dynamic HTML’s data awareness capabilities, we can build functional and useful Web-based business applications that truly meet our clients’ needs.”
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Jim Flynn
General Manager
@Work Technologies
“We are excited about Microsoft’s standards-based implementation of Dynamic HTML. Dynamic HTML gives us the best of both worlds, the opportunity to deliver rich content to our high end users and graceful degradation for users with older browsers.”
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Scott Mager
Team Leader
Agency.Com
“When we first saw Dynamic HTML, our hearts skipped a beat! Finally … we can unplug the plug-in applets! With the advent of Dynamic HTML, the entire Web page can be interactive and compelling, because interactivity takes place in the HTML itself!”
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Shane Ginsberg and Dan Harrison
Alpha Online Team
“Dynamic HTML is a significant step forward in empowering user interface and site designers to build what they can envision. It’s definitely a ‘must-use’ addition to our capabilities. Our designers are already learning how to use this technology, and we plan to use it in all of the sites we are building.”
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Stefan Fielding-Isaacs
Founder of Art & Science
W3 Development
“The ability to cut out ‘decision’ pages is always a top priority for us. With Dynamic HTML we’ll be able to get users to the content they want efficiently, and without the burden of downloading controls, applets or plug-ins. And with Dynamic HTML’s layout and graphical objects, we can build more engaging pages, without long download times.”
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Kevin Drew Davis
Director of Interactive Development
Blue Marble ACG
“Dynamic HTML lets developers exploit the full potential of interactive Web pages without giving up the benefits of HTML. The ability to manipulate pages on the fly, even after they’ve loaded, without tedious writes and rewrites will give rise to better, more flexible design solutions. Being able to tap Microsoft’s Dynamic HTML through any scripting language is a significant advantage over Netscape’s proprietary JavaScript solution for style sheets.”
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Bryan McCormick
President and Creative Director
Broadway Interactive Group
“We’re excited about Microsoft’s Dynamic HTML, which brings new power and simplicity to data-driven Web applications in a standards-based way. IntraBuilder Client/Server, Borland’s visual development tool for sharing live corporate data on the Web, already supports the creation of dynamic server-side content. We look forward to supporting Microsoft’s Dynamic HTML so that developers can build faster, more interesting Web applications.”
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Michael Gardner
Director of IntraBuilder Development
Borland International
“As an entertainment-based content provider, we are finding Microsoft’s Dynamic HTML far more powerful and flexible in developing our ‘active’ Web pages. Microsoft’s commitment to W3C standards and cross platform compatibility was a key factor in our decision to embrace this technology.”
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Don Briare
The Carsey-Werner Company
“We plan to use Dynamic HTML for its interactivity and scriptability. Our product, InfoMagnet, enables intranet users to find and filter personalized information from corporate, external and Web broadcast sources. Dynamic HTML will help us better manage and display this information, without affecting server loads.”
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Scott A. Gatz
Director of Product Management
CompassWare Development Inc.
“Classifieds2000 provides classifieds for top brand sites on the Web, including Lycos, Infoseek and GeoCities. We must provide an outstanding user experience flawlessly across all browsers. With Microsoft’s standards-based implementation of Dynamic HTML, we can create one version of content for all users.”
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Sani El-Fishawy
President and CEO
Classifieds2000
(http://www.classifieds2000.com/)
“Dynamic HTML allows me to create applications in straight HTML while eliminating round-trip communication between the browser and the server. Because of this, I eliminate network traffic, creating a faster and better user experience.”
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Brian Wharton
Digital Genesis
“eDrive fans fill up on the hottest entertainment, from its Academy Awards coverage to Cindy Crawford’s online debut. Using Microsoft’s Dynamic HTML, we can let our fans control their online entertainment experience through any browser that fully supports W3C standards. For eDrivers, it’ll be like driving a new car with luxury options included as standard features.”
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Michael Bolanos
President and CEO
Entertainment Drive
“GeoCities strives to keep its site fresh, interactive and inviting. Dynamic HTML lets us create this environment in an easy-to-use fashion, so our focus remains on creativity.”
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Detlef Uecker
Web Developer
GeoCities
“Dynamic HTML will enable us to meet the graphic- and data-intensive demands of the fashion and retail industries within current bandwidth constraints. The innovative multimedia effects delivered by Dynamic HTML will be critical to accelerating the use of consumer applications such as commerce on the Web.”
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Jordan Harris
CEO and President
Hurricane Interactive
(http://www.hurricaneinteractive.com/)
“With Dynamic HTML, we can build mission-critical and high-performance browser-based applications that have very sophisticated user interface, including client-side data binding, sorting and filtering. We’re excited to take advantage of these powerful capabilities in our applications and Web development efforts.”
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Zor Gorelov
President
IntraACTIVE Software Corp.
“With Dynamic HTML, we can take traditional client/server applications and deploy them on the Web. This technology dramatically reduces the time required to roll out new applications while providing greater control over appearance, content and functionality.”
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Jeff Stewart
Managing Director
Multimedia Resource Group
“Dynamic HTML takes the World Wide Web to a new level of innovation and creativity. This initiative will help realize the potential of dynamic, personalized and interactive access to Internet and intranet-based knowledge repositories. SoftQuad is looking forward to incorporating Dynamic HTML technologies in future versions of our Knowledge Publishing applications.”
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Roberto Drassinower
Vice President, Product Management
SoftQuad
“Microsoft’s Dynamic HTML (DHTML) is an innovative application of technology which enables very compelling user experiences in low-bandwidth networks. The reduction in server interaction and network traffic made possible by DHTML is important because most Internet users are bandwidth-constrained.”
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Frank LoVerme
Vice President Warner Media
Services, a unit of Time Warner Inc.
“I’m excited about having the tools to enable a more dynamic Web-based environment. Standards like these will provide richer and more immediate experiences for our artists and their fans.”
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Albhy Galuten
Vice President, Interactive
Programming Universal Studios
“Microsoft’s Dynamic HTML offers greater flexibility and control in page layout and design. Combined with Microsoft’s rich server-side capabilities, Dynamic HTML will become an important way to build content-rich, fully interactive Web-based applications.”
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Peter Mullen
General Manager, the Business Products Unit
Visio Corp.
“Dynamic HTML will give Web designers the ability to transform content as we know it from passive to interactive media, thereby changing the way users experience content on the Web. The Web Design group is committed to using Dynamic HTML and the latest technology in Internet and Web publishing.”
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Eli Sagiv
Internet Identity Designer
Web Design Group
“Microsoft’s Dynamic HTML lowers today’s creative boundaries. It lets us produce immersive experiences in HTML without requiring plug-ins or reloading the page.”
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Paul Boutin
Push Media Technical Manager
WIRED Digital
“Dynamic HTML will raise interactivity on the Internet to a whole new level. It’s so easy to create engaging content that it will transform today’s static Web documents into interactive experiences. We’re excited to use tools like Microsoft’s Dynamic HTML to enhance the experience of users who visit ZDNet.”
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Frank Schroth
Technical Director
ZDNet
