MICROSOFT ANNOUNCES FRONTPAGE 1.1 WITH NEW PRICING AND AVAILABILITY OF FREE
BETA ON WORLD WIDE WEB

New $149 Price Delivers Power of Web Publishing to Broader Base of PC
Users

REDMOND, WASH. - APRIL 8, 1996 - Microsoft Corp. today announced that
Microsoft FrontPage 1.1, the new version of its critically acclaimed tool
for easily creating and managing Web sites, is available in beta form for
immediate download at no charge. Microsoft also announced that the
estimated retail price for FrontPage has been lowered from $695 to a
special introductory estimated retail price of $149, and that the
Microsoft FrontPage server extensions, previously priced at $200 each, are
now free from Microsoft. Microsoft Office for Windows 95 customers will be
eligible for a $40 rebate. The FrontPage 1.1 beta and server extensions
are available from the Microsoft Web site at
HTTP://WWW.MICROSOFT.COM/FRONTPAGE/. Widespread retail availability of
FrontPage 1.1 is expected by the end of May 1996.

"With FrontPage, Web publishing is not just for webmasters any more," said
Chris Peters, vice president of Microsoft's Web authoring product unit.
"The combination of FrontPage's ease of use, rich features, aggressive
pricing, and integration with Microsoft Office helps bring Web publishing
to the broadest range of computer users."

WEB PUBLISHING MADE EASY

FrontPage 1.1 includes a number of technical breakthroughs that provide
users with a fast and easy way to develop and maintain professional Web
sites without programming. Designed for both individual users and
collaborative work environments, the FrontPage client-server architecture
supports authoring and Web-site management from a user's desktop, across a
corporate LAN, or over the Internet. FrontPage 1.1 is designed to look and
work like Microsoft Office applications, allowing a vast number of users
to leverage their existing knowledge. FrontPage 1.1 includes the following
features:

* NEW EASIER INSTALLATION. FrontPage 1.1 offers an improved setup allowing
users to be up and running fast.

* NEW WYSIWYG TABLE SUPPORT. FrontPage 1.1 makes it easy to create WYSIWYG
tables, giving users direct control over all table features.

* NEW HTML FRAMES SUPPORT. FrontPage 1.1 provides a Frames Wizard offering
existing frame templates or the ability to create a custom frame grid.

* NEW AUTO RECALCULATE LINKS. FrontPage 1.1 lets users automatically update
all occurrences of a hyperlink throughout the Web when a file is moved or
renamed.

* NEW WYSIWYG IMAGE ALIGNMENT. FrontPage 1.1 image alignment is fully
WYSIWYG, so users can see how the image will actually appear.

* NEW INTEGRATION WITH MICROSOFT OFFICE. Microsoft FrontPage 1.1 has a
consistent interface and shares features with Microsoft Office such as
multiple level undo and spell checking. Users also can open documents from
and save documents to FrontPage webs from within Microsoft Word 95 and
Microsoft Excel 95.

* FRONTPAGE EDITOR. A WYSIWYG editor that makes it easy to create and edit
Web pages with no knowledge of HTML.

* FRONTPAGE EXPLORER. A visual Web site manager that allows users to
graphically view and manage a complex Web site.

* PERSONAL WEB SERVER. Server software that allows users to stage Web sites
and host webs on their computer.

* WEBBOT COMPONENTS. Drop-in Web server functionality such as full-text
searching, threaded discussion groups, and surveys, without requiring
complex CGI scripting or any setup.

* WIZARDS AND TEMPLATES. Automated content creation tools that allow users
to interactively build Web pages, providing them with preformatted
templates to which content can simply be added.

* MULTIUSER REMOTE AUTHORING. Ability to set permissions for multiple
authors to enable collaborative Web creation and management.

* SERVER EXTENSIONS. Software (available for download from the Web at no
charge) for popular Windows NTR operating system and UNIX Web server
platforms that allows proper hosting of FrontPage-created Webs. Server
extensions for Microsoft Internet Information Server are scheduled to be
available on April 22, 1996.

"WEB DOCUMENTS" STRATEGY

Allowing users to create and edit Web documents easily is a key aspect of
Microsoft's desktop applications strategy. Microsoft believes the same
broad category of users for whom word processing and spreadsheet documents
are the most common daily business communication formats today will author
webs for corporate intranets or the Internet in the near future. FrontPage
extends the notion of document creation to include a variety of document
types such as HTML pages and Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel and Microsoft
PowerPointR presentation graphics program files, all connected by
hyperlinks.

Microsoft Office applications already offer a complete set of Internet
Assistants that allow users to publish to the Web without complex HTML
programming. The combination of Office applications and FrontPage provides
a complete Web publishing solution for the broadest range of business
users.

Microsoft FrontPage 1.1 has a consistent interface and shares features with
Office such as multiple-level undo, spell checker, and the ability to
change font sizes, styles and colors. FrontPage 1.1 also allows users to
update Office documents in webs by automatically launching the appropriate
Office application from inside FrontPage Explorer. In addition, from the
Microsoft Web site, users can download a FrontPage Open and Save add-in,
which enables them to open spreadsheets and documents from a FrontPage
web, or save them from Microsoft Excel 95 and Microsoft Word 95 to a
FrontPage web.

"Integration between FrontPage and Office is a smart strategy aimed
squarely at intranets, where business users are expected to rapidly
increase the sharing of information and collaboration online," said
Stephen Auditore, president of Zona Research Inc. "This announcement
clearly strengthens Microsoft's position as a key player in the Web and
intranet content-creation market, and alters the competitive environment,
emphasizing content creation as a horizontal activity on a par with word
processing."

SPECIAL INTRODUCTORY PRICE OF $149 THROUGH MARCH 31, 1997

FrontPage 1.1 will be available through March 31, 1997, for a special
introductory price of $149 (estimated retail price). In addition, existing
customers of Microsoft Office 95 or any of its standalone applications are
eligible for a $40 rebate. Customers who have purchased FrontPage 1.0 are
eligible for a free upgrade to FrontPage 1.1 once the final retail product
is available, expected to be before the end of May 1996.

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.
 
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