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Interleaf Announces Plans for Industry-Leading XML Support in New Product Offering (3/24/98)

SEATTLE, Wash.--Interleaf, Inc. (NASDAQ:LEAF) announced today at XML, The Conference plans for an industry-leading eXtensible Markup Language (XML) product, code-named "BladeRunner." BladeRunner is being co-developed with Microstar Software Ltd. of Ontario, Canada. BladeRunner will be a visual XML document assembly and authoring environment that will enable companies to achieve the information reuse and cross-media publishing benefits of XML. The BladeRunner product will be comprised of an integrated visual Data Type Definition (DTD) modeling tool, WYSIWYG authoring and assembly environment, and publishing engine designed for users without XML and SGML expertise.

BladeRunner will enable companies to take the next step beyond HTML. The improved communication, reduced time to market, and cost reduction benefits of XML come from its ability to facilitate the assembly of textual information and data from a variety of sources and to encode this information in a common intelligent electronic format for easy dissemination, searching, repurposing, and sharing. To achieve these benefits, an integrated capability to design the information structure, import various source formats, place information content in the structure, and publish to any media is required. BladeRunner will be the first fully-integrated facility to accomplish this end-to-end process for active publishing of intelligent documents.

"BladeRunner will help companies leverage their document assets by enabling them to harness the power of XML," said Jaime Ellertson, Interleaf President and CEO. "The results will be dramatically increased information reuse, more effective information searching and retrieval, and expanded ability to publish to multiple outputs such as the Web and paper."

BladeRunner will be an assembly, authoring, and publishing environment with visual modeling features that enables users without XML expertise to:

model new XML DTDs and author valid XML documents by generating the document template;
assemble information created in a variety of authoring tools and repositories including Microsoft Word and Excel, WordPro, WordPerfect, Interleaf 6, FrameMaker, Lotus Notes, and others;
ensure the document is in compliance with a specified DTD by prompting the author through the creation of the proper elements;
convert existing structured documents, with their DTDs, into revisable, valid XML documents;
export and import validated XML documents; and
output documents in a variety of electronic and printed forms including HTML, XML, PDF, and others.

"XML document solutions will be far more powerful than conventional HTML approaches," said Sean Sullivan, Multimedia Manager at Siemens Power Corporation. "Combining visual DTD modeling with WYSIWYG document authoring and assembly is an excellent idea. Using such a tool would significantly lower XML setup, training and support costs. The end result would be improvements in the consistency, quality, completeness, and maintainability of our manufactured products."

Application Examples
Public corporations are required to regularly publish and submit thousands of pages financial filings to the SEC. Corporations would use BladeRunner to generate specific structured documents such as 10-Ks, 10-Qs, and prospectuses for EDGAR filings by authoring content in a popular office package like Microsoft Word and assembling the Word files in BladeRunner for conversion to XML. Distinct views of the same data would be generated by utilizing industry standard DTDs or creating new documents? within BladeRunner. This means that the content can be prepared once and published in multiple documents across multiple distribution mediums. Once created, these structured documents could share information with other XML-compliant documents in much the same way database applications share data today.

The reuse benefits of XML can also be achieved by manufacturers who will use BladeRunner to repurpose information across many types of documentation and to provide transaction-based intelligence to documents throughout the supply chain. For example, a single set of technical specifications, driven off a bill of materials, would be used to automatically generate multiple types of documentation including user manuals, service manuals, and training guides. These documents could then be distributed via an intranet, pressed on a CD, or printed as appropriate.

Products and Services
Interleaf and Microstar will jointly provide products and services to companies that are considering the cost/benefit of XML-based information management solutions. Offerings will include high-level management advisory services, system design and integration, training, technology evaluations, outsourcing, and post-implementation support. The companies will also create custom technology components to meet specific customer needs.

BladeRunner is scheduled for initial release in the third quarter of this calendar year. It is a Windows NT-based solution. Pricing for server and workstation-based packages will be announced prior to general availability.

About XML
XML is the emerging standard for next-generation document applications delivered via the Internet and corporate intranets. It is a powerful document transaction structure and content modeling language that will play an increasingly important role in describing a wide variety of data on the Web. XML will make it easier for information consumers and producers to locate information and interact with each other. Tasks requiring searching and blind exchange of information can be automated with XML by providing a common framework for defining the structure and content of the information in what is commonly referred to as Document Type Definitions or DTDs.

About Interleaf, Inc.
Interleaf, Inc. provides software solutions for publishing complex documents across the extended enterprise. Its advanced, open software products integrate electronic publishing, document management, distribution, and Web technologies, making it easy for customers to assemble, manage, distribute, and publish business-critical information across the enterprise and beyond. Interleaf is a public company listed on the Nasdaq National Market (NASDAQ:LEAF). Interleaf is headquartered in Waltham, Mass., with offices around the world. Information about Interleaf's products is available from Interleaf Direct at 1.800.955.5323 or on the Interleaf Product Pages.

About Microstar
Microstar Software Ltd. provides structured information management solutions comprised of technology and services for Global 2000 companies. These solutions enable Microstar's customers to effectively and economically create, manage and distribute their corporate knowledge assets. The company is recognized for its innovative standards-based solutions based on SGML and XML. Microstar's technology expertise includes the development of XML and SGML tools such as Near & Far( Designer and the Aelfred XML parser. The company is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (MSS). Information about Microstar Software Ltd. is available on the their Web site at www.microstar.com.

Interleaf is a trademark of Interleaf, Inc. Near & Far Designer is a trademark of Microstar Software LTD. Microsoft Word and Windows NT are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.