NEW YORK, July 21, 1999 — Microsoft Corp. announced Microsoft® Word 98 Special Edition for the iMac and iBook, a new product designed specifically for owners of the iMac and iBook that will be available for a limited time. Microsoft also announced a new release of Microsoft Outlook® Express, which delivers unprecedented ease of use for e-mail and contact information management to users of Macintosh® . The announcements were made at MACWORLD Expo/New York.
“We are extremely excited to announce Word 98 Special Edition for the iMac and iBook and Outlook Express 5.0. Both of these products reflect our goal to deliver innovative products for the Macintosh that are simple to use and solve real-world, everyday problems,”
said Ben Waldman, general manager of the Macintosh Business Unit at Microsoft.
“When we talked to owners of the iMac, they told us they wanted a world-class word processor at an affordable price. So we created a product to fit these needs that includes not only Word 98 but great content, such as greeting card designs, which will help people accomplish what they are trying to do at home better and faster.”
“The iMac and the iBook are two of the most accessible, simple-to-use computers available to consumers,”
said Clent Richardson, vice president of Worldwide Developer Relations, Apple Computer Inc.
“Microsoft Word 98 Special Edition and Outlook Express 5.0 are great complements to the iMac and iBook, continuing to bring fun and simplicity into home computing as well as offering tremendous quality and value to customers.”
Word 98 Special Edition for the iMac and iBook
Word 98 Special Edition is expressly designed for the customers of Apple’s new iBook and iMac computers. It features the award-winning Word 98 Macintosh Edition, the choice of businesses, schools and homes everywhere, at an affordable price ($99 after rebate). In addition, the product offers content that helps people plug into the excitement of home computing. Word 98 Special Edition includes Word 98; thousands of new clip-art images; 100 new, professionally designed greeting card templates and sample greeting card paper; Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.5; and Microsoft Outlook Express 4.5 Macintosh Edition (free downloads of version 5.0 are planned to be available on its scheduled release in the fall; connect-time charges may apply). All the products are installed by one simple drag-and-drop step.
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Word 98 Special Edition helps users stay in touch. Keeping in touch with friends and family is one of the most important reasons cited by home users for buying a computer. Word 98 Special Edition allows users to do this in style by providing exciting new greeting card designs. With any of paperStudio.com’s 100 professionally designed, fully editable greeting card templates, printed on the company’s premium papers, users can create greeting cards they are proud to send. Thousands of new, high-quality clip-art images make it easy to customize and add pizzazz to any document, so users can be more creative than ever with their documents.
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Word 98 Special Edition makes it easy for home and mobile users to take advantage of the power of the Internet. E-mail is made easy with Outlook Express 4.5 and enables users to keep detailed contact information, including e-mail and postal mailing addresses, phone numbers, and other notes. Browsing the Web, finding the information they need quickly, and shopping online are made easy and fun for users with Internet Explorer 4.5 Macintosh Edition, and the Web Page Wizard makes it a snap for users to create their own home page.
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Word 98 Special Edition helps users get more done – the easy way. Word 98 is the best word processor for getting things done simply and quickly. It is easy to get started fast with drag-and-drop installation, which eliminates the need for an installation program. Word 98 also pioneered a self-repair technology, so if users accidentally delete a necessary file, Word 98 will replace it automatically. Users need no longer rely solely on the family computer expert to help with computing needs – the Office Assistant in Word 98 is ready to answer their questions. It also
“watches”
as users work and offers helpful suggestions to make them more productive. Step-by-step wizards walk users through the creation of newsletters, calendars, mailing labels and other popular home computing projects. And, for adding extra style to documents, Word 98 offers a wide variety of special effects, 3-D images with OfficeArt, fancy text with WordArt, and borders, shading and style options.
Word 98 makes it easy for users to create polished documents with built-in writing support. The Quick Thesaurus helps users find the right word right away, and the Grammar Check and Spell It features can be set to proofread during the writing process, so errors are corrected on the fly. Now it’s easy to transfer documents between work and home or to share files with friends because Word 98 offers seamless compatibility, regardless of computer platform.
Outlook Express 5.0
Outlook Express 5.0 Macintosh Edition, the newest version of this award-winning application, is due out this fall. Outlook Express 5.0 offers powerful new features that make it simple for users to manage information at home and on the road.
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Outlook Express 5.0 makes it simpler than ever to send and manage e-mail and to keep track of friends and business contacts. Composing e-mail just got easier with features such as Address AutoComplete, which intuitively fills in e-mail addresses with a single click of the mouse by automatically combining the sender information from e-mail messages with the Address Book. The new Smart Attachments feature in Outlook Express 5.0 addresses one of the biggest complaints that users have about e-mail today: Previously, sending files to and receiving files from others (which show up as attachments in e-mail messages) just didn’t work. Outlook Express 5.0 now lets users drag and drop attachments and instantly select the appropriate encoding without needing to know complex terminology, so attachments are readable the first time they are opened. In addition, the powerful new Info Bar helps users remember what actions they took on specific e-mail messages, such as the date a message was replied to or the contents of the reply itself, and also retains the history of an e-mail message for easy reference.
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Outlook Express 5.0 eliminates everyday e-mail hassles and automates most e-mail operations. Outlook Express 5.0 solves two common frustrations with e-mail: setting up new accounts and the hassle involved in switching e-mail applications. Outlook Express 5.0 includes a new Account Setup Assistant, which makes setup a breeze and allows for seamless importing of e-mail and contacts from other applications. Outlook Express 5.0 also includes a powerful Junk Mail Filter to deal with unwanted commercial mail, a plain-English error log, and automatic scheduled downloading for e-mail and news accounts.
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Outlook Express 5.0 brings information together. The new release of Outlook Express brings information together and functions as an information hub that manages and consolidates multiple e-mail accounts, including IMAP and POP accounts as well as the MSN TM Hotmail TM Web-based e-mail service, so people can easily access their e-mail and contacts any time. Now users can create a new Hotmail account from within Outlook Express 5.0 so they can enjoy the benefits of a permanent, personal e-mail address with universal accessibility and then synchronize this directly with Outlook Express, including synchronization of the Hotmail Address Book. This new integration with Hotmail allows users to take advantage of the ease of use and power of Outlook Express with their Hotmail account while they are logged on to their main computer. More and more people need to access their e-mail and contact information while they are on the go. Outlook Express 5.0 now has integrated e-mail and contacts synchronization with 3Com Palm Organizers so users can access their e-mail and contact information wherever they are: at home, in the office or on the road.
Pricing and Availability
Microsoft Word 98 Special Edition is scheduled to be available from retailers nationwide by Aug. 26 for an estimated retail price of $99 after a $30 in-box rebate. This offer ends Jan. 31, 2000.
Microsoft Outlook Express 5.0 is scheduled for release in the fall and may be downloaded for free from the Microsoft Web site at http://www.microsoft.com/mac/ (connect-time charges may apply).
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq
“MSFT”
) is the worldwide leader in software for personal computers. The company offers a wide range of products and services for business and personal use, each designed with the mission of making it easier and more enjoyable for people to take advantage of the full power of personal computing every day.
Microsoft, Outlook, MSN and Hotmail are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.
Other product and company names herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.
