SoftQuad Announces HoTMetaL intranet Publisher (HiP) Sets New Paradigm for Realizing Full Benefits of Building a Corporate Intranet.

ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 18, 1996--SOFTQUAD INTERNATIONAL (NASDAQ: SWEBF TSE: SKI) Editor's Summary HiP defines a new paradigm for building and enhancing corporate intranets by delivering a comprehensive solution that capitalizes on the informational power intranets can deliver to users.

Includes three essential components - Content Creation, Management, and Information Access.

Content Creation component based on HoTMetaL technology with ability to extend HTML for internal needs.

Provides total Web management - tools for visualizing, editing, distributing, monitoring, and project managing the volumes of Web documents of an intranet.

Provides a browser add-on that enables users to access Web-based information in better, more productive and dynamic ways.

NetWorld + Interop, Booth 109H - SoftQuad International, a leading provider of content publishing tools for the Internet and corporate intranets, today announced a new era in Web publishing with the launch of its sophisticated intranet publishing product for Windows - the HoTMetaL Intranet Publisher (HiP). HiP defines a new paradigm for building corporate intranets by empowering webmasters and users with a "state-of-the-art" product to create, publish and manage interactive Web content, while providing end users with the ability to access internet-based information in better, more productive and dynamic ways than has ever been possible before.

HiP is comprised of four essential intranet publishing components, and in turn extends each component beyond current offerings, making it a truly new paradigm for realizing the full benefits of building a corporate intranet. HiP includes:

Content Creation-a sophisticated HTML content creation component based on the technology of HoTMetaL PRO, SoftQuad's award winning HTML authoring software, that enables users to extend HTML to meet specific informational needs in a document;

Information Access- a browser add-on for Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet explorer which refines the way users can access and "mine" the information from Web documents.

Publishing & Management - a powerful publishing and site management interface, which goes beyond current site management products, for visualizing, editing, distributing, monitoring, and project managing the volumes of Web pages and links typically found on corporate intranet sites.

Automated Site & Content Monitoring - an automated monitoring tool that watches for changes and events on a Web site or within specific Web documents and notifies the webmasters.

"Internet-based technology has exploded across corporations, but companies have yet to capitalize on the full value intranets can provide," said Dave Gurney, Chairman and CEO of SoftQuad. "Many companies have posted volumes of HTML-rendered internal documents, but few have been able to harness the power intranet publishing can deliver to their people. Corporations are searching for solutions that go beyond the current authoring and browsing model, which delivers static documents and a limited method for accessing that information.

Corporations need an intranet publishing solution that allows them to easily create, post and manage vast amount of content, while enabling their employees to access this wealth of information in ways best suited to their individual requirements. HiP is a solution that delivers on both counts."

Building a Better IntranetHiP includes a content creation component, which is based on the technology of SoftQuad's award-winning product HoTMetaL PRO. Like HoTMetaL PRO, HiP provides content creators with a WYSIWYG, graphical environment that supports all the latest advances in HTML (version 3.2), including support for tables and frames, video and audio extensions, ShockWave files, ActiveX components, and Java applets. However, the content creation component in HiP delivers more robust capabilities than current authoring tools.

In addition, HiP allows content creators to define their own HTML extensions, and embed these extensions in their Web documents. These unique HTML extensions, such as "part number" or "phone number", enable users to search for content information based on these specific user - defined extensions through the HiP browser add-on. This provides users with the equivalent of delivering database-powered searching within an HTML source document. This power is delivered through the inherent structure of the HTML document, without having to enter the information into an external database, and dealing with the difficulties posed by having to maintain, update, manage and properly link the information between a Web page and the back-end database. User defined extensions, also give content creators more power over layout when combined with stylesheets.

In a corporate setting, an HTML document may be accessed by different users in different departments with different needs. To satisfy these different needs, authors must either create unique documents for different users, or create more generalized content. With HiP, however, authors can create a single detailed document and provide different Views of the information for different users. For example the author can create a document and deliver it with different Views to the sales department and the technical support department. Then each department can select the appropriate information from the single document as it pertains to their department. This allows the sales department to easily access pricing information from the document and the technical support department can access the technical issues contained in the same document by using a different View.

Making Users More Productive As mentioned, HiP includes a browser add-on for Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer that provides users with very powerful and easy way to "mine" the wealth of information in Web pages.

The HiP browser add-on provides users with a very powerful and dynamic search capability not available on the market today. When a user searches for specific words or context-sensitive information, such as searching for information within specific HTML tags in a Web document, the HiP viewer returns a document-wide search result.

Rather than highlighting each individual occurrence or hit and requiring the user to press "F3" until they find the information they seek, HiP highlights every occurrence of the search, making it clear to the user where the occurrences exist.To further enhance the user's ability to better navigate through Web documents, the HiP browser add-on allows them to create dynamic Tables Of Contents, or Live TOCs.

Live TOCs are created "on-the-fly" from the inherent HTML structure of the document. This means that users can create Live TOCs based on any HTML element in a document -Images, H1 or H2 headings, Body text, etc. -including any unique HTML extensions created by the content creator. Furthermore, if a document's content is changed, the Live TOC is automatically regenerated.

Finally, the HiP browser add-on enables users to create, maintain and share their own annotations. Annotations are saved as a separate layer that appears on top of a Web page, but does not affect the source document. In addition, the user can attach annotations within the Live TOCs, creating more powerful ways to share information with fellow users, and more powerful ways to navigate through the document.

Total Information Management

HiP provides an environment for comprehensive information management beyond the capabilities currently offered by site management products. HiP enables users to globally edit intranet documents, distribute pages, assign tasks, one-button publish and project manage the entire document creation process. A built-in batch conversion capability automatically transforms existing legacy documents, in any of 15 different native word processing formats, into HTML format.

A unique link visualization capability makes it easy for users to see all the documents on their site, with all the associated links between documents. The visualization tool automatically transforms to present the users with a hierarchical, structured and distinct views of the site, as the user clicks on various Web documents.

Automated Site & Content Monitoring

HiP includes a totally unique automated Web monitoring capability that watches for changes and events on a Web site or within specific HTML document. The automated monitoring tool can be used by both webmasters and end users to perform customized actions, such as issuing e-mail messages to notify users of a change, or to automatically replace or remove an expired page.

The monitoring tool can also alert users about broken links, altered or missing pages, downed servers, or new documents posted on a site that a user has specific interest in. Opportunities for Value Added Resellers (VARs)HiP presents VARs with an opportunity to grow their intranet business with their corporate customers, so with the launch of HiP, SoftQuad has also launched a VAR program.

The How To Grow Your Intranet VAR Business campaign is a VAR program aimed at imparting the 10 years of experience of SoftQuad's own successful consulting services arm in providing government agencies, major corporations, and academic institutions deploy multi-platform, standards-based solution for electronic documents. The program provides qualified VARs with sales and product training, product discounts, priority technical support, sales and marketing materials, and guidance in approaching the intranet market place to profit with the right solutions.

Pricing and Availability

SoftQuad plans to ship the HoTMetaL Intranet Publisher product in Q4 (calendar) 1996. The suggested list price of HiP is $395.00 US and The HiP Pilot Pak, a starter package that includes HiP with a license for additional 4 HiP browser add-ons has a suggested list price of $495.00 US. SoftQuad will announce pricing, including details about its site licensing agreements for the HiP viewer add on, when the product ships. About SoftQuad

SoftQuad is a leading provider of content publishing tools and consulting services for Internets and corporate intranets. The Company's products enable users to deploy multi-platform, standards-based solutions from creating, editing and delivering electronic documents, to information management and access, to intranet site management. SoftQuad is recognized worldwide for its pioneering work in structured document publishing and is a founding member and active participant in the World Wide Web Consortium, the Internet Engineering Task Force and the SGML Open Consortium.

Headquarters in Toronto, Canada, SoftQuad International employs more than 150 people with additional sales offices across North America, and European operations based in London, with offices in Paris and Munich. SoftQuad can be contacted at [phone] or on the Internet at http://www.softquad.com. Electronic access to SoftQuad's press materials can be accessed at http://www.softquad.com/press/and through Newsdesk International at http://www.newsdesk.com or 1-800-636-6092.

Forward-looking statements in this release are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Investors are cautioned that all forward-looking statements involve risk and uncertainties, including without limitation risks of intellectual property rights and litigation, risks in technology development and commercialization, risks in product development and market acceptance of and demand for the Company's products, risks of downturns in economic conditions generally, and in the software application development tools and business intelligence tools markets specifically, risks associated with competition and competitive pricing pressures, risks associated with foreign sales and high customer concentration and other risks detailed in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

CONTACT: Softquad Inc. (Investor Relations)

Selwyn Wener, 416/544-9000, [e-mail] or

Softquad Inc. (Press and Media)

Jodi Hazzan, 416/544-9000 ext. 2254, [e-mail]