REDMOND, Wash. -- May 31, 2001 -- Microsoft Corp. today announced the availability of Microsoft Publisher 2002, the seventh and latest edition of the company's award-winning business desktop publishing program. Publisher is designed for users who are serious about creating their own sales and marketing materials without the hassle or expense of learning to use a design application developed for professional designers. Microsoft Publisher offers flexible page layout tools and high-quality printing options as well as an intuitive interface, integration with other Microsoft Office applications, and a customizable collection of professional design sets and templates designed to meet the needs of the business user. In the product's 10-year history, Publisher 2002 has helped millions of users work faster and smarter. This new version features the new cleaner, more refined user interface of Microsoft Office XP as well as an expanded collection of design templates, improved commercial printing options, and enhanced Web and e-mail publishing options. "From its inception, Publisher has been designed to enable users without design experience to produce professional-looking publications quickly and easily," said Kathleen Hebert, vice president of the bCentral Small-Business Division at Microsoft. "Publisher 2002 builds on that goal by offering users more sophisticated ways to create a unique and professional image. Through integration with the Microsoft bCentral small-business service, users can now take advantage of additional online marketing tools and services to further promote their image via the Web. By bringing the capability to design and produce a slick business identity in-house, Publisher 2002 levels the playing field for smaller organizations that must compete against bigger companies with bigger budgets." The new version of Publisher also includes user-requested productivity features available in previous versions of Microsoft Office, such as customizable toolbars, Print Preview, headers and footers, and OfficeArt. Publisher 2002 further simplifies common productivity and design tasks by integrating features, including shared Task Pane features such as the Office Clipboard, Search, Clip Art, and Styles and Formatting found in the new Office XP, which is being released to the public today in New York. The new Paste Options smart tag and the AutoCorrect Options smart tag found in Office XP speed the process of combining text from various sources into a Publisher template and offer the user greater control over text. In addition, Publisher users can now open, edit and format basic Microsoft Word documents in Publisher through the Word Import Options Task Pane, including applying Publisher designs, color schemes, fonts schemes and layout options. "The Publisher development team has incorporated much of the Office functionality into Publisher, which is a big time saver. But more important, they have added many new features that allow for the creation of all types of publications -- including, for us, an 88-page full-color catalog," said Tim Schultz, vice president of Sarah's Attic, a gift and collectible wholesaler. "Improvements such as better graphics compression and Save as Picture make my job a lot easier. Microsoft really listened to what its customers wanted when it created Publisher 2002." Also new in Publisher is an expanded collection of 15 new Master Sets -- coordinated design templates for the most common types of business publications -- that enable users to create a consistent identity for business collateral and documents. Font Schemes, another new design option, allows users to apply coordinated fonts to an entire publication. Responding to feedback from customers and the commercial printing industry, Publisher 2002 incorporates new functionality to facilitate the printing and production of Publisher documents. Through the Microsoft Publisher Service Provider Program, more than 5,000 commercial printers, service bureaus, digital printers and copy shops will receive the new version of Publisher and training materials to be equipped to handle Publisher 2002 files. "Microsoft Publisher 2000 was the first version of Publisher that really made sense for print shops and commercial printers to support," said Richard Priesing, prepress specialist at Cedar Graphics Inc. in Redmond, Wash. "With enhanced printing features in Publisher 2002 and assistance through the Publisher Service Provider Program, we can better support the printing needs of the customer. Microsoft has made enhancements requested by printers, such as support for process printing and spot printing in the same publication, as well as support for more than three spot colors and the ability to substitute missing fonts within a publication. Now, we printers have more options to help customers produce professional-quality results." "We want our users to have as much of the power of high-end desktop publishing programs as possible, without the enormous learning curve and without the high-end price," said Vikram Nagaraj, development manager for the Publisher product group at Microsoft. "Most of our customers are already familiar with Office, so this new version makes it easy for them to get started. And the expanded production capabilities and other features we've added are really going to help our users unlock the potential of Publisher." Pricing and Availability Microsoft Publisher 2002 is now available for an estimated retail price* of $129 (U.S.) and an upgrade price of $99 (U.S.) after a $30 mail-in upgrade rebate included in the product box. Publisher can be obtained at major retail outlets or online at http://shop.microsoft.com/. More details about Microsoft Publisher 2002 can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/publisher/.