Aldus ships Persuasion 3.0 for the Macintosh

SEATTLE, February 23, 1994 -- Aldus Corporation today announced the
shipment of Persuasion 3.0 for the Macintosh, a major upgrade to its
cross-platform software application for creating and managing slides,
overheads, and computer-based onscreen presentations.

The new version features a redesigned user interface, a new OLE charting
module for an array of charts and special effects, new controls for slide
design and output, and greatly expanded support for multimedia and
onscreen presentations.

"Persuasion has always been a leader in the presentation graphics market
and the introduction of 3.0 reaffirms this position," said Mark Sherman,
senior product marketing manager for Aldus. "The power of a new object
code base, the use of Object Linking and Embedding (OLE), and the use of
moveable tool palettes enabled the creation of a flexible and intuitive
interface that gives users quick access to any aspect of the program."

Intuitive new interface Persuasion 3.0 features a completely redesigned
interface with a floating toolbox and palettes that provide easy entry for
novices, while increasing the efficiency of experienced users. Users can
arrange the text, color, fill, line, and other palettes to be immediately
accessible on the desktop without getting in the way of the program's
presentation views.

To simplify design choices, Persuasion 3.0 offers an extensive selection of
slide and chart styles for users to preview. Upon selecting an
AutoTemplate from the thumbnail preview, users are immediately taken to
the slide view and presented clear prompts for creating titles, subtitles,
bulleted text, and charts.

Persuasion's AutoTemplates provide slide masters that automatically format
title slides, text-heavy slides, text-plus-graphics slides--even
organization charts whose unique display challenges make it one of the
product's most requested features. The AutoTemplates come complete with
background colors, compatible typeface, and design elements. 60 new
AutoTemplate designs have been added in version 3.0.

New charting module 

Persuasion 3.0 now offers extensive charting capabilities through its new
charting module--a full fledged OLE application with a broad selection of
84 truly distinct but easy to reach chart types and a wide array of
special effects. Both 2D and 3D (XYZ axes) chart formats are included, and
are easily accessible through a gallery of colorful thumbnails.

A variety of charting variations are available, including absolute,
stacked, bipolar, and dual axis. Persuasion's true 3D charts are even more
diverse--bar, pyramid, scatter, sphere, ribbon, area, and surface chart
types--as well as 2D radar, polar, high-low, spectral map, histogram,
bubble, and open-close charts.

Advanced precision controls 

Persuasion 3.0 features an array of precision tools and controls designed
to assist the most advanced users with managing color and grayscale
elements in presentations, as well as with editing and drawing.

Four color models--Red, Green, Blue (RGB); Cyan, Magenta, Yellow (CMY);
Hue, Lightness, Saturation (HLS); and Hue, Saturation, Value (HSV)--are
now included, as well as the ability to manage both color and grayscale
elements within a single presentation. Users can even view and print
accurate grayscale representations of the colors in a presentation for
black-and-white overheads, speaker notes, and audience handouts. Moreover,
Persuasion' s flexible palette management system enables users to edit
black-and-white elements without disrupting the display of those same
elements in color mode.

Likewise, Version 3.0 has increased the capabilities of its drawing tools.
Now, users can specify customer line weights and even create custom
arrowheads and line endings. Straight lines, curved lines, and geometric
shapes are easily accessible from a floating palette, making it possible
to create drawings from scratch or import graphics from Persuasion's
library of 500 ready-made color clip art images.

The new Persuasion also offers precision slide element alignment through
the use of multiple onscreen rulers in combination with pixel-level image
movement. Persuasion lets users select as many ruler guides as practical.
A ruler guide can be easily placed over, behind, or near an object and the
object can be "snapped to" that guide for precision alignment.
Alternatively, any object can be "nudged" a pixel at a time using the new
nudge palette. An align/distribute feature provides automatic positioning
of text and graphics.

Multimedia and onscreen presentations 

Likewise, Persuasion 3.0 has added a variety of new features that support
multimedia and onscreen presentations. Version 3.0 now offers access to a
host of sound, animation, and digital video special effects that can be
used to selectively highlight any element on a slide--graphics as well as
text.

With its new Autojump feature, Persuasion lets users interrupt a
presentation and branch to another slide, another screen show, or another
application in response to audience questions even to a QuickTime movie or
the Excel spreadsheet range from which the data was derived.

Persuasion supports built-in animation that let users specify direction,
speed, and play area for text, charts, and graphics. Its improved layering
control provides automatic highlighted builds of text, individual timing
of layers and slides, and the ability to assign unique transition effects
to each layer. While other programs offer automatic layering of text,
Persuasion automatically layers text, charts, tables, and organization
charts, and also lets users manually layer up to 30 elements per slide.

Onscreen presentations can be freely distributed as runtime files and
viewed on a Mac or PC using the updated Persuasion Player 3.0. The new
Persuasion Player supports all of Persuasion' s advanced multimedia
features, as well as onscreen annotations that can be saved with a Player
file. Persuasion supports Apple's Publish and Subscribe protocol, as well
as object linking and embedding.

System configuration 

The recommended system configuration for Aldus Persuasion 3.0 for the
Macintosh is a IIcx or greater, Centris, LC III, PowerBook 160 or greater,
or Quadra computer; 5 MB or more of RAM available to Persuasion; an 80MB
hard drive; and System 7 or later. Minimum hardware requirements are a
Macintosh II or IIx, Classic II or Color Classic, LC or LC II, PowerBook
140 or 145; at least 4MB of RAM available to Persuasion; and a hard disk
drive.

Availability and pricing 

Aldus Persuasion 3.0 for the Macintosh is available immediately through
Aldus resellers in the United States and Canada for a suggested retail
price of $495 (U.S.). Pricing and availability of the Windows version and
localized versions for other markets will be announced later.

Registered users of Persuasion 2.12 or earlier can obtain an upgrade for
$150. Upgrades are available directly from Aldus or Aldus dealers. For
more information on Persuasion, or to receive an upgrade, customers can
call Aldus Customer Services at (800) 685-3617. Full retail versions can
be purchased through local Aldus resellers.

Aldus Corporation (NASDAQ:ALDC) creates computer software solutions that
help people throughout the world effectively communicate information and
ideas. The company focuses on three lines of business: professional
publishing and prepress markets; applications for the general consumer
market; and service and support programs for professional end-users. Aldus
has subsidiaries in Europe, Asia, and the Pacific Rim serving a worldwide
network of dealers and distributors.

Aldus Corp, 411 First Ave South, Seattle, WA 98104-2871
206-622-5500

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