WordPerfect Office 12-The Other Office-Arrives Today! Full-Featured, Compatible Office Suite Offers Value-Priced Alternative to Microsoft Office

Business Wire, April 27, 2004

News Editors/Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

OTTAWA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 27, 2004

Corel announces that WordPerfect(R) Office 12 - the newest version of its award winning office suite and the leading alternative to Microsoft(R) Office - is available today in stores across North America, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and South East Asia. Delivering a powerful combination of robust features, suite-wide enhancements to compatibility, and new functionality to increase users' productivity, WordPerfect Office 12 answers the market's demand for a feature-rich, value-priced office suite that is highly compatible with Microsoft Office.

WordPerfect Office 12 boosts productivity with the trusted power of WordPerfect for word processing, Quattro(R) Pro for spreadsheets and Presentations(TM) for multimedia slide shows. The suite also includes an address book for managing contacts, the WordPerfect Wireless Office Suite, and the new WordPerfect OfficeReady(TM) template browser, a powerful platform for managing WordPerfect Office templates, including the 40 new templates bundled with the suite. These elements, coupled with Corel's flexible licensing terms and expanded support options, provide users with a choice they can trust.

"The release of WordPerfect Office 12 signals a new era of growth for one of the world's best-recognized office suites," said Amish Mehta, CEO of Corel. "With the support of over 18 million users worldwide and a global distribution network spanning five continents, WordPerfect Office 12 is the clear choice for value-conscious consumers, small-to-medium sized businesses (SMBs), as well as government and legal customers seeking a full-featured, value-priced office suite that can co-exist within a Microsoft environment."

"Today many users are seeking an alternative to the high costs of Microsoft Office and Corel has responded," said Richard Carriere, Director of Office Productivity for Corel. "WordPerfect Office 12 offers customers straightforward licensing terms, flexible support options and savings of up to 63 per cent over the cost of Microsoft Office. It's also widely available thanks to a distribution network that includes significant partnerships with leading PC manufacturers. These benefits, combined with the suite's extensive file support for PDF, XML, HTML and Microsoft Office formats, position WordPerfect Office 12 as the office suite best equipped to function within a variety of office settings."

Focus on Compatibility

Emphasizing compatibility with Microsoft Office, WordPerfect Office 12 features enhancements designed to increase productivity and simplify the exchange of information:

- Enhanced! Compatibility with Microsoft Office - Based on user
  feedback, many file compatibility enhancements with Microsoft
  Office have been added. With WordPerfect Office 12, it is easier
  than ever before to exchange information with clients using
  Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, and Microsoft PowerPoint(R).

- New! Workspace Manager - The new Workspace Manager allows users to
  easily adjust the user interface to meet their needs. Users can
  customize WordPerfect, Quattro Pro and Presentations to place
  WordPerfect Office 12 features, including toolbars and menu items,
  where they would normally be found in Microsoft Office 2002. Users
  can also choose between WordPerfect Office or Microsoft
  Office-style keyboard shortcuts, menus and toolbar interfaces, a
  Lotus(R) 1-2-3(R) mode or the WordPerfect 5.1 Classic Mode. Legal
  users of WordPerfect Office 12 will enjoy easy access to the legal
  tools and keyboard shortcuts they use most, all by activating the
  WordPerfect Legal Mode from within the Workspace Manager. By
  allowing users to access tools and features from the locations that
  are familiar to them, WordPerfect Office 12 dramatically reduces
  training and ramp-up time - two critical barriers to adopting an
  alternative office suite.

- New! Compatibility Toolbars - WordPerfect Office 12 allows users to
  open, edit, print and save Microsoft Office files without searching
  through menus or making multiple selections. Users can now quickly
  publish documents to PDF, the Web, XML, Microsoft Word, Microsoft
  Excel or Microsoft PowerPoint at the click of a button - saving
  time and dramatically reducing the complexity of working with
  Microsoft Office files.

- New! Upgrade Installation - When installing WordPerfect Office 12,
  users can now choose to upgrade their existing installation without
  first uninstalling their previous version(i). Customizations and
  preference settings are automatically forwarded to a new version of
  WordPerfect Office - saving time and making it easier than ever to
  upgrade.

- New! WordPerfect OfficeReady Browser - The WordPerfect OfficeReady
  Browser supplies a fast and easy-to-use template browser that helps
  small businesses manage their templates and lets them focus on
  working, not searching. The WordPerfect OfficeReady Browser enables
  users to organize, preview and access WordPerfect Office 12
  templates in one easy-to-use browser, includes 40 new templates,
  and provides single-click access to many more via the Web.