Vermeer Technologies Unveils Breakthrough Client/Server Visual Web Publishing Software; FrontPage Simplifies Task of Creating and Maintaining Sophisticated, Interactive Web Sites.CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 16, 1995--Vermeer Technologies, a pioneer in the rapidly growing Web publishing Creating a Web site and placing it on the Web server. A Web site is a collection of HTML pages with the home page typically named INDEX.HTML. Web sites are designed using Web authoring software which provides a graphical layout capability or by hand coding in HTML or both. market, today unveiled FrontPage, an easy-to-use application that greatly simplifies the task of creating and maintaining sophisticated, interactive Web sites. FrontPage runs on Windows and Macintosh systems and allows a new class of users to create powerful Web-based information systems on either local or remote servers without programming. Software extensions are available that enable FrontPage developed sites to run on commercial and shareware Web servers running UNIX UNIX Operating system for digital computers, developed by Ken Thompson of Bell Laboratories in 1969. It was initially designed for a single user (the name was a pun on the earlier operating system Multics). , Windows NT (Windows New Technology) A 32-bit operating system from Microsoft for Intel x86 CPUs. NT is the core technology in Windows 2000 and Windows XP (see Windows). Available in separate client and server versions, it includes built-in networking and preemptive multitasking. , Windows95, and Windows 3.1. FrontPage provides a number of technical breakthroughs for developing Web sites, including WebWizards, which are smart templates that guide authors and designers through the development process, and WebBots, drop-in objects that add interactive functions to a Web site without programming. FrontPage comes standard with twelve WebBots for easily adding such functions as forms, discussion groups, surveys and text searches. With visual Web site management tools, and support for geographically dispersed, multiple user Web development teams, FrontPage also simplifies the process of creating, updating and maintaining web sites. A FrontPage-developed site can be housed on a PC, remote server on a corporate network, or remote server at a Web hosting Making a Web site available on the Internet. Many ISPs host a few personal Web pages for an individual at no additional cost above the monthly service fee, but the address is subordinate to the ISP; for example, www.friendlyisp.com/pat_smith. "farm" anywhere on the Internet. "The Internet publishing revolution underway today provides companies with a way to form new kinds of relationships with their customers and to create highly functional internal information services See Information Systems. ," said Dr. Charles Ferguson, Founder and Chairman of Vermeer Technologies. "The companies with the most successful Web sites on the Internet provide customer support and collect direct feedback from their customers through their Web sites. FrontPage is the first Web publishing system that enables non-programmers in marketing or customer support to instantly develop these interactive capabilities on their Web sites, without the need for programming expertise." FrontPage provides users with a comprehensive set of visual development tools that increase user productivity, including a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) Pronounced "wiz-ee-wig." It refers to displaying text and graphics on screen the same as they will print on paper or display on a Web page. HTML editor A low-level Web site authoring tool that is essentially a text editor, specialized for writing HTML code. It assists the HTML author by cataloging all HTML tags and common structures in menus and by being able to catch certain syntax errors. , a visual editor for creating hot zones in graphics, powerful text and graphic import and conversion tools, and complete text editing The ability to change text by adding, deleting and rearranging letters, words, sentences and paragraphs. Text editing is the main operation users perform in word processors, which typically also handle graphics and other multimedia files. See text editor and word processing. features, such as spell checking. Another visual feature of FrontPage, the FrontPage Explorer, gives the user a graphical view of all hyperlinks to and from each page. Hyperlinks can be created, changed, or removed by simply dragging-and-dropping icons. "FrontPage's visual orientation will make Web publishing a reality for an entirely new group of users," said Ed Cuoco, Director of Product Marketing at Vermeer. "Virtually anyone who can work with desktop publishing desktop publishing, system for producing printed materials that consists of a personal computer or computer workstation, a high-resolution printer (usually a laser printer), and a computer program that allows the user to select from a variety of type fonts and sizes, tools can now develop and maintain a Web site. WebWizards guide the author through the process. Two WebWizards ship with the product: one to establish a corporate presence and a second to create a personal home page. The author simply responds to a series of questions, and FrontPage takes care of the rest. With WebBots, even a beginner can add the sophisticated features that make a Web site easy to navigate and really stand out, and all without having to program. FrontPage gives a much wider range of companies the power to publish and the ability to control the content they are disseminating." FrontPage's rich publishing environment eliminates many of the time-consuming tasks typically associated with Web site development, such as adding and updating navigation bars, creating HTML-based forms, and inserting images. For example, using FrontPage's WebBot, authors can make a change to one page that is automatically propagated throughout a Web site to those pages that incorporate the same text or graphical element. One of the most important requirements for a Web site is that it delivers fresh and current information through constant updating. To ease the Web site maintenance and update burden, FrontPage is based on a client/server architecture An environment in which the application processing is divided between client workstations and servers. It implies the use of desktop computers interacting with servers in a network in contrast to processing everything in a large centralized mainframe. See client/server. that enables multiple users to simultaneously update different pages on the same server. FrontPage provides access controls so that a FrontPage client can manage and update a FrontPage-developed Web site anywhere on the Internet. In addition, Web sites developed with FrontPage are easily transportable to different Web servers anywhere on the Internet -- greatly simplifying hosting. FrontPage provides a "To Do" list that is accessible by multiple users. With this capability, a production manager in charge of a Web site, for instance, can track all outstanding tasks that must be completed before the site is made public and can assign new tasks to team members. In addition, sales, marketing, engineering, customer service and human resources The fancy word for "people." The human resources department within an organization, years ago known as the "personnel department," manages the administrative aspects of the employees. can each directly maintain their own portion of a corporate Web site, without having to rely on a single point of contact for Web updates. FrontPage is Web server independent, and sites created with FrontPage can be hosted on either a local PC, a LAN server (1) A network operating system from IBM that runs as a server application under OS/2 and supports DOS, Windows and OS/2 clients. Originally based on LAN Manager when OS/2 was jointly developed by IBM and Microsoft, starting with LAN Server 3. , or on a remote server anywhere on the Internet. With a substantial percentage of all Web sites remotely hosted, this capability is particularly important. FrontPage connects to a Web server using the same communications protocols that Web browsers The following is a list of web browsers. Historical Historically important browsers In order of release:
FrontPage is based on an open, standards-based approach. In addition to working with standard Web browser The program that serves as your front end to the Web on the Internet. In order to view a site, you type its address (URL) into the browser's Location field; for example, www.computerlanguage.com, and the home page of that site is downloaded to you. and server technology, FrontPage will be available for a number of computing platforms, including Windows 3.1, Windows95, Windows NT, and Macintosh. FrontPage ships with a full text search engine and personal Web server software. Sites created using FrontPage are compatible with the major Web server software packages, including NCSA (1) (National Center for Supercomputing Applications, Urbana-Champaign, IL, www.ncsa.uiuc.edu) A high-performance computing facility located at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. and CERN CERN or European Organization for Nuclear Research, nuclear and particle physics research center straddling the French-Swiss border W of Geneva, Switzerland. for Solaris, HP/UX HP/UX Hewlett-Packard UNIX operating system HP/UX Unexploded Human Particulate Operating System and other UNIX operating systems Noun 1. UNIX operating system - trademark for a powerful operating system UNIX, UNIX system operating system, OS - (computer science) software that controls the execution of computer programs and may provide various services , and WebSite for Windows NT and Windows95. Vermeer is publishing APIs for WebWizards and WebBots that will enable Web consultants and users to customize FrontPage's functionality. PRICE AND AVAILABILITY FrontPage 1.0 for Windows 3.1, Windows95 and Windows NT is available immediately. The Macintosh version will be available later this year. The product contains multiple WebWizards with numerous page templates, 12 WebBots, and a full text search engine. FrontPage also includes a Web server that allows the product to function out of the box as a complete personal Web publishing system. The product will be available from Vermeer and value-added resellers, and through catalogs. Manufacturer's suggested retail price is $695 for the client/server package; pricing and availability for server enabler kits for UNIX and third-party Web servers can be obtained by contacting Vermeer. FrontPage Developer Kits for WebWizards will be available to qualified developers later this year. ABOUT VERMEER TECHNOLOGIES Founded in April 1994 by Dr. Charles Ferguson and Randy Forgaard, Vermeer Technologies, Inc., is pioneering the development of powerful, easy-to use World Wide Web authoring tools that allow end-users and professionals to collaboratively publish on the Web without programming. The company's first product, FrontPage, allows virtually any company to quickly and easily gain the business benefits of Web publishing. More information about Vermeer is available by sending e-mail to info@vermeer.com, by visiting our Web site at http://www.vermeer.com or by calling 1.800.WEB.0075. -0- NOTE TO EDITORS: Vermeer, FrontPage, and WebBot are trademarks of Vermeer Technologies, Inc. All of the products mentioned are registered trademarks or trademarks of their respective companies. CONTACT: Dave/Bairey Communications Peter Dave, 415/882-9905 E-mail: peter@dbcomm.com |
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