Continental Airlines Takes Off With SoftQuad's XMetaL; XML Content Creation with XMetaL Improves the Efficiency of Continental's Technical Publications Department.

Business & High-Tech Editors

TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 14, 2000

SoftQuad Software, Ltd. (OTCBB:SXML), an internationally recognized developer of XML-enabling technologies, today announced that Continental Airlines (NYSE:CAL)(NYSE:CAL.A) has been able to quickly adopt XML in its technical publications department with the help of XMetaL, SoftQuad's award winning XML content creation solution.

Continental is using XMetaL integrated with Documentum's (Nasdaq:DCTM) 4i content management platform to edit and manage the content and lifecycle of their aircraft maintenance manuals, internal maintenance procedures, illustrated parts catalogues, and maintenance training documents. XML is an ideal document format for the airline industry because it allows companies to manage and digitally deliver the thousands of pages of mission critical technical documentation and maintenance manuals that must regularly be produced and revised.

Continental's quick transition to XML has dramatically shown that XMetaL can be easily customized and integrated into a content management system to allow people with no prior experience in either XML or structured content to quickly create valid XML content.

"One of the barriers to the wide-scale adoption of XML has been the difficulty engineers and technical writers have had working with the format," said Roberto Drassinower, president and CEO of SoftQuad Software, Ltd. "As a result, teams of document specialists have been required to convert information created in another format into XML. XMetaL solves this problem by allowing average users, with minimal training, to create and work with XML content in a real-world production environment."

"When we were choosing an XML content creation solution, we were really impressed with XMetaL's authoring environment," said Patrick Tourais, manager of systems and training, Continental Airlines. "After about a week or so of using the product, our technical writers were up to speed. Even casual computer users are coming along nicely."

With the adoption of XML and XMetaL, Continental immediately improved the efficiency of their Technical Publications department. "Because our technical writers are working directly in XML, they can now concentrate on the technical content rather than worrying about how it should be formatted," Tourais concluded. "We can use our text in more than one place, cutting the time to delivery and ensuring the consistency of the information we produce."

Building an Effective XML Content System using XMetaL on the Documentum 4i Platform

To provide Continental's engineers and technical writers with a productive XML content creation environment, XMetaL was customized by Creative Concepts Corporation (CCC), a leader in the design and integration of web based content management systems.

"From a system integration standpoint, XMetaL is very powerful and easy to program," said Paul Vanderveen, senior consultant, CCC. "We used XMetaL's rich API and easy-to-customize tag insertion methods to produce valid XML while keeping the individual authors' workload to a minimum. And we effectively integrated XMetaL with Documentum 4i to make it easy for users to retrieve documents and other content for editing, and save them back to the content repository."

With the release of XMetaL 2.0, CCC plans to enhance Continental's content management system even further. "We just received the latest release of XMetaL and we're very excited to begin using it," said Vanderveen. "XMetaL allows us to do things that just aren't possible with any other solution."

"We are very pleased to be partnering with SoftQuad," said Whitney Tidmarsh, Documentum vice president of product marketing. "The integration of Documentum 4i's XML capabilities with SoftQuad's XMetaL content creation provides Global 2000 companies with a true end-to-end XML content system. With the emergence of XML as a standard for doing any form of business online, having such a system is critical to competitive advantage."

About Creative Concepts Corporation

Creative Concepts Corporation (CCC) is a Systems Integrator for e-business solutions. CCC specializes in developing systems to produce document management and web-based distribution systems for the airline industry. CCC airline documentation systems handle XML and SGML documents that range from individual aircraft modification documents to huge ATA-2100/2200 compliant manuals. CCC's FlightLine product integrates the Engineering, Technical Publications, and Work Card production aspects of an airline's maintenance operation. For more information see the CCC website at www.creativecorp.com.

About Documentum

Documentum Inc. (Nasdaq:DCTM) develops, markets and supports internet-scale content management solutions that accelerate organizations' online presence. These solutions enable customers to create, deliver, and personalize content of all formats, from internal and external contributors, for business processes that extend across and beyond the enterprise, to all delivery channels.

Documentum customers apply trusted content within and between their organizations for online commerce and personalized promotions, 24x7 customer and partner self-service, online exchanges, electronic procurement, collaborative planning and innovation and related e-business applications.

The company, with 21 offices worldwide, also offers a full range of global consulting services and programs, including worldwide technical support and education services through its Professional Services organization. Headquartered in Pleasanton, Calif., Documentum has licensed its products to more than 900 Global 2000 and Internet customers in a broad range of industries. For information, visit www.documentum.com.

About SoftQuad Software, Ltd.

SoftQuad Software, Ltd. (OTCBB:SXML) is an internationally recognized developer of XML-enabling technologies and commerce solutions for e-business. A founding member of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) and XML.org., SoftQuad is also a member of the Open Applications Group, Inc. (OAGI) and the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) Forum. SoftQuad has been instrumental in shaping and developing both the standards and technologies that are changing the way companies exchange information and do business over the Web.

Headquartered in Toronto, Canada, with European operations based in London, SoftQuad was first to market with XMetaL, an advanced, yet easy-to-use XML content creation solution. It has already become the premier enabling technology for XML-based content applications in electronic publishing, e-commerce and knowledge management. SoftQuad is targeting the growing business-to-business (B2B) marketplace with MarketAgility, a supply-side content solution that allows companies to effectively join and compete in B2B e-markets, which it plans to release in Q4.

For more information, visit SoftQuad's website at http://www.softquad.com

SoftQuad and XMetaL are registered trademarks of SoftQuad Software, Ltd. MarketAgility is a trademark of SoftQuad Software, Ltd. All other products or company names mentioned are used for identification purposes only, and may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Caution Concerning Forward-Looking Statements 

This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as "anticipates", "estimates", "expects", "will", "should", "projects", "intends", "plans", "believes" and words and terms of similar substance used in connection with any discussion of future operating or financial performance identify such forward-looking statements. Those forward-looking statements are management's present expectations of future events. As with any projection or forecast, they are inherently susceptible to uncertainty and changes in circumstances. SoftQuad is an early-stage growth company that operates in a highly competitive and rapidly changing environment, and its business results are dependent on numerous factors, including demand for its products and services, its ability to manage costs and generate revenues, technological developments, protection of its intellectual property rights, its ability to attract and retain key personnel, the resolution of issues concerning commercial activities via the Internet, including security, reliability, cost, ease of use and access, government regulation, risks related to international sales and potential foreign currency exchange fluctuations, economic, political and social conditions in the countries in which it operates, its ability to successfully obtain inclusion of its common stock on the Nasdaq National Market and other risks detailed from time to time in periodic reports filed by SoftQuad with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and other regulatory authorities. SoftQuad's actual results could differ materially from management's expectations because of such factors.