Claris Corporation today announced that Claris Home Page software, its easy-to-use web authoring solution for novices and experienced users, is now shipping for both Macintosh and Windows users at an estimated retail price of $99. As an added bonus, all Claris Home Page purchasers will receive a coupon good for up to six months of free web hosting for their web pages. First shipments of the product will go on sale at MACWORLD EXPO in Boston at selected reseller and distributor booths on the trade show floor beginning August 7.

Claris Home Page has already gained widespread popularity and acclaim among over 50,000 users, who have downloaded the Claris Home Page beta software free of charge from Claris Corporation's web site. It is among the first web authoring solutions that truly demystifies web authoring by not requiring HTML coding expertise, placing web page creation directly into the hands of general users who wish to create and maintain their own web pages. At the same time, Claris Home Page is for experienced web masters, who want to quicken the pace of their web page creation productivity with a solution feature set not currently found elsewhere on the market.

Features that web authors need now

Claris Home Page delivers a powerful set of important technical breakthroughs and features long in demand by users but not available until now. Unique to Claris Home Page is the combination of many powerful tools that helps developers and more advanced users create, edit and view web pages, all from one application. These key features include:

o One-stop HTML editing within Claris Home Page - All editing, including raw HTML code editing, is done within Claris Home Page - no need to launch other HTML editing applications. Also, a Find and Replace function speeds updating time.

o Frames - Create frame layouts that bring multiple web pages together into one page, enabling easy development of dynamic web sites in just a few mouse clicks.

o Libraries - Store frequently used text, images and HTML code - all of which can easily be dragged and dropped from the Claris Home Page Library. If the library object has a special URL or links to another web object or document, those links stay "live" when the object is put on the new web page. Like Frames, objects generate raw HTML code for customization and editing.

o Tables - The Table Editor lets users easily create tables of different column and row sizes in seconds.

o Web graphics - Claris Home Page ships with over 500 unique graphic ready-to-use images ranging from full-color background

o Document Statistics Page - Provides web page creators with estimated download times for objects and/or entire pages for 14.4 and 28.8Kbps modems to help authors make feasible decisions on their usage of graphics.

o Comprehensive Tool Bar or Floating Tool Bar Palette - Users choose how they wish to access the Tool Bar, which provides easy page generation, comprehensive text formatting, images, rules, links and anchors.

o Browser Preview - Gives web authors a quick preview of their web page as it will appear on in their browser.

o Customizable - Specify line breaks, tag styles and other attributes in the final HTML file.

o Free Web hosting service - Users receive a coupon enabling them to choose 6 months basic speed (28.8 Kbps) or 3 months of high speed (56 or faster Kbps) free web hosting via HoloNet. (This offer is good until June, 1997). The web hosting service is subject to HoloWWW terms and conditions.

o Advanced user features - Seasoned users can also develop dynamic, interactive sites that call applets (using Java or JavaScript) and CGI applications.

The word from Claris Home Page beta testers: "It Rocks!"

"This is far and away the best HTML editor so far." Mark Staben mstaben@proaxis.com

"I found it to be just what I've always wanted in a web editor, and more. It's very easy to use and saves me a lot of time as I used to write the HTML from scratch. It is flexible enough that I can view the document source at any time and makechanges or additions to it directly." Alexandra Yung Creative Director DBZ Ltd., Hong Kong

"Claris Home Page is the first I have seen that is not only easy for beginners but also useful for large-scale Web development. Its easy interfaces for complex HTML like tables and frames allow us to focus more attention on content and less on markup. Home Page finally delivers on the promise of a powerful HTML editor with the ease of use of a word processor." Jon Wiederspan VP of Technical Services ComVista, Inc. Bellevue, WA 98005

"I've used various other applications as a beginner by creating my own personalized home page, but I was forced to use up most of my time learning HTML, which left me with very little time to be creative with my site. Now that I've been using Claris Home Page, the time that it takes me to design web pages has been drastically reduced." Andrew T. Osten Student, web page designer, and junior accountant North York, ONT, CANADA

"It rocks! As a web page artist, I've been disappointed by the lack of a full-featured WYSIWYG editor for HTML After several years of trying every web page utility I could find, including PageMill, I ending up trashing everything and going back to raw text editors. Now, I can finally compose web pages quickly, and fully explore the creative options available to me with the current HTML code set." R. Scott LaMorte Tribal Internet Hunter & Gatherer lamorte@armory.com

Claris Internet Strategy Claris Home Page is a key element in the overall Internet strategy for Claris. Claris Home Page will extend the current and future Claris Internet-enabled product line and cross-product capabilities, including:

o Authoring - Claris Home Page today complements the HTML output capabilities of ClarisWorks 4.0 for Windows 95 and Mac OS software, available today.

o Internet Email - Claris Em@iler and new Claris OfficeM@il software provide powerful email management with Internet access for individuals and organizations of up to 100 users.

o Database Solutions - Built-in TCP/IP support and third-party extensions provide web access to data stored in FileMaker Pro 3.0 databases today. In the near future, users will be empowered with easy storage and placement of FileMaker Pro databases within Claris Home Page created web pages.

o Internet-enabled Applications - Pervasive standards support and integrated web access (such as opening URLs) are key aspects of future applications, such as the recently announced ClarisWorks with OpenDoc support, and current ClarisWorks HTML support.

o Services - ClarisLink, a service of HoloNet, extends the reach of Claris OfficeM@il by providing organizations with Internet email access.

Claris Home Page system requirements, trade-up program and ongoing downloads:

Claris Home Page for Macintosh requires a Mac or Power Mac with a 68020 processor or higher; 8MB memory; System: 7.1 or later; and 2MB free for minimum installation (6MB for full installation). For Windows users, Claris Home Page requires an Intel 486 or higher compatible PC System; Win 95 or Win NT 3.5.1 or newer; 8MB RAM (16MB for NT) and 4MB free hard disk space.

Claris Home Page will be available through authorized resellers at an estimated retail price of $99 and estimated education retail price of $79. Users of competitive web authoring software applications, including Adobe PageMill (1.0.2. and 2.0); HoTMetal Pro; Tapestry; GNNPress; Microsoft FrontPage; Netscape Navigator Gold; Corel WebDesigner 2.0, Quarterdeck WebAuthor, Deltapoint QuickSite, and InContext Spider qualify for a $20 rebate ($10 rebate for education retail price buyers) direct from Claris with proof of purchase. Users may continue to download previous time-limited beta versions of Claris Home Page from the Claris World Wide Web site through mid-August. After that time, web browsers may download free trial software versions of the software from Claris World Wide Web page at http://www.claris.com.

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