Microsoft Hails 10 Years of Publisher

REDMOND, Wash., Oct. 15, 2001 — Autumn brings two reasons to celebrate Microsoft® Publisher: It marks the 10th anniversary of the Microsoft Office desktop publishing solution and the release of Microsoft Publisher Deluxe with Photo Editing version 2002. Publisher Deluxe gives customers all the features of Publisher 2002, plus the photo-editing technology of Microsoft Picture It!® Photo 2002.

Designed specifically for small-business users who do not have training in desktop publishing, Publisher combines design and layout tools to help users set up the most common types of sales, marketing and communications documents, including brochures and newsletters, as well as assist them in designing a Web site. The Publisher Task Pane makes it easy for users to modify design elements, including Color Schemes and Fonts Schemes.

Publisher Deluxe with Photo Editing version 2002 is on store shelves now. The software gives users more tools to edit photographs before adding them to a Publisher publication and includes a CD with more than 25,000 images.

“The approach we took with the original version of Publisher was to give users a powerful set of tools, while making it easy for them to use those tools,”
said Adam Eversole, a lead software development engineer for Publisher at Microsoft Corp. and member of the original Publisher development team.

Released in September 1991, Publisher 1.0 was widely acclaimed for making design accessible to nonprofessional designers, garnering a PC Computing Most Valuable Product award and a host of other recognitions. Successive versions have met with similar success, and through the years, Publisher has remained one of the best-selling desktop publishing programs for everyday business users.

“I started using Publisher about four years ago with Publisher 97 and zero design experience,”
said Julie Tisdale, a resource development manager and amateur photojournalist.
“After 20 minutes with the product, I was able to navigate and use it. Today I can create most anything.”

Publisher, the first desktop publishing program from Microsoft, introduced wizards, step-by-step instructional guides that walk users through the setup of almost any type of document and allow those without formal design training to make use of the application’s professional-level tools. The concept quickly caught on, and wizards have since become common in Microsoft software and operating systems.

It’s all part of Publisher’s empowering approach, which has resonated with consumers since the beginning.
“Publisher has stayed true to its roots,”
Eversole said.
“For the past 10 years, Publisher has been giving customers increasingly powerful capabilities to produce professional-looking results.”

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq
“MSFT”
) is the worldwide leader in software, services and Internet technologies for personal and business computing. The company offers a wide range of products and services designed to empower people through great software — any time, any place and on any device.

Microsoft and Picture It! are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.

The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

Note to editors: If you are interested in viewing additional information on Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft Web page at http://microsoft.com/presspass/ on Microsoft’s corporate information pages.

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