OfficeReady™ Family Essentials Supplies Hundreds of Useful Templates for Word, Excel

COSTA MESA, Calif., (June 12, 2000) -- Canon Software Publishing (CSP), a division of Canon Computer Systems, Inc., today announced OfficeReady Family Essentials - an extension of its popular OfficeReady line of software products. OfficeReady Family Essentials complements Microsoft Office by providing users with professionally-designed, ready-to-use templates and added functionality for Word and Excel. OfficeReady Family Essentials is compatible with Office 97 and Office 2000 as well as Office 98 Macintosh Edition.

In 1999, OfficeReady products achieved a 70% unit market share for Microsoft Office add-on products according to PC Data. Expanding the OfficeReady family of software into the home is a natural extension of the product line.

Designed for busy families, students or anyone using their computers for home management tasks, OfficeReady Family Essentials software saves time and produces useful documents. For virtually every need, OfficeReady Family Essentials supplies a ready-to-use template. Categories of templates include education, awards and certificates, job search, personal expenses, correspondence, personal planning and real estate.

"We're giving people the opportunity to use Office, a familiar program, to do activities previously reserved for other software applications," said Kevin Reilly, senior manager of product marketing at CSP. "Instead of purchasing and learning several programs to perform basic financial calculations and desktop publishing projects, OfficeReady Family Essentials provides all the basics at an affordable price with almost no learning curve."

OfficeReady Family Essentials boasts over 400 templates for Word and Excel allowing families to create helpful and fun projects in a program they already use regularly. OfficeReady Family Essentials automatically loads with the selected Office application (Word or Excel) and is accessible through an easy-to-use on-screen toolbar which makes many complex functions in Word and Excel, such as page borders, watermarks and Word Art, easier to access and use. In Excel, formulas are already in place -- eliminating the chore of complex calculations in spreadsheets for planning 401K contributions, vacation planning, college budgets or mortgage amortization.

Finding the appropriate template is fast with OfficeReady's Template Browser.* A user looking for a book report template, for example, can perform a keyword search in the browser and be immediately presented with the appropriate template options.

Using Digital Images in Word
OfficeReady Family Essentials specifically attacks the roadblocks to using digital photos in Word documents. OfficeReady Family Essentials includes 86 special Word templates containing Photo Sockets, placeholders for digital images, to make artwork easier to use in the word processing program.

With OfficeReady Family Essentials, families can create lost-dog flyers, insert photos into a science report or produce a holiday newsletter with minimal effort. Using photos in Word is a fast, easy way to create unique, personalized thank you letters or fun calendars. By simply clicking on a Photo Socket, users will be able to insert the photo of their choice from a CD-ROM or hard drive. Users may alter the size and shape of the digital photo to fit into the socket by cropping or stretching the image; users can also rotate and flip photos.

OfficeReady Family Essentials enhances Word by giving photo-editing power to the user from within the program rather than requiring a separate program and interface. An AutoCorrect button* provides one-click photo optimization by instantly adjusting technical photo elements including the image's white and black points, dynamic range and color balance to improve the overall quality of the photo. Manual controls are available to adjust the brightness, contrast, color intensity and sharpness of a digital image. OfficeReady Family Essentials can also convert digital photos to grayscale images for black and white printing. Additionally, OfficeReady Family Essentials can frame or add a drop shadow to a photo within a Word document.

Canon Web Publisher
Using Canon Web Publisher* in OfficeReady Family Essentials, users can quickly send finished OfficeReady documents and templates to a personal home page or as an e-mail attachment.** Canon provides each user with 5 MB of free, private, personal Web space. Users can effortlessly post resumes, travel itineraries, or moving announcements to the Web for friends or family to view. Canon Web Publisher also gives the user the ability to set up an address book with names and email addresses. The program will automatically inform the selected names on the address book that an item is available for them to see and give them the URL to connect to the document. Sharing a meeting agenda or A+ book report is simple and fun with Canon Web Publisher.

Pricing & Availability OfficeReady Family Essentials will be available in July 2000 through major retail chains, e-tail sites and from www.software.canon.com for an estimated street price of $29.95.=

OfficeReady Family Essentials will be featured in retail back-to-school promotions with another new software title from CSP -- eJay MP3. The $29.95= eJay MP3 Windows software provides an easy entry into the world of MP3 music by giving families an easy way to organize and play MP3 music downloads, create personalized playlists and CD collections, and convert music CDs to MP3 files and vice versa. Plus, eJay MP3 includes over 50 free MP3 music files as well as Sound Mixer to make unique music using hundreds of free dance, rave and hip-hop sounds.

System Requirements Minimum
Windows system requirements for running OfficeReady Family Essentials include an IBM-compatible PC with a Pentium processor or better, 166 MHz or faster; Windows 95, 98, 2000 or Windows NT 4.0 operating system; Microsoft Office 97 or Office 2000; a CD-ROM drive; a minimum of 32 MB of RAM; a minimum of 50 MB of free hard disk space recommended; an SVGA/256 color display; and a mouse or other pointing device.

Macintosh requirements include a Power Macintosh or Macintosh-compatible PowerPC with 120 MHz or faster processor; Macintosh System 7.5 or higher; Microsoft Office 98 for the Macintosh; a CD-ROM drive; a minimum of 32 MB of RAM; 15 MB of free hard disk space minimum (50 MB recommended); and a mouse or other pointing device.

OfficeReady products work with most PC and Macintosh-compatible inkjet, Bubble Jet or laser printers.

Customer Service and Customer Technical Support
Canon Software Publishing offers a full range of customer technical support options:== Including e-mail and Web Site (FAQ's) via the CSP Web site at www.software.canon.com. For 24 hour, 7 day-a-week technical support, a customer can call (757) 413-2855 for fax-back support or to talk with a customer care technician (8 a.m. - 10 p.m. Monday - Friday, EST; excluding holidays). Regular customer support is free for the first 30 days. After 30 days, paid support is available.

About Canon Software Publishing
Canon Software Publishing (CSP) is a division of Canon Computer Systems Inc., which is a subsidiary of both Canon U.S.A. Inc. (Lake Success, NY) and Canon Inc. (Tokyo, Japan). The division, headquartered in Costa Mesa, Calif., was founded in 1998 to develop, publish and distribute computer software primarily in North and South America. CSP publishes titles from both independent third-party developers and associated Canon companies. Canon is recognized as the world's leading imaging technology company, a leader in printer technology and a top worldwide patent holder. As a global technology leader, Canon achieved $25 billion in worldwide sales in 1999.

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*Some features are available to Windows users only.
**Internet access must be purchased separately and may require a payment of a monthly fee.
=Prices are estimates only and are subject to change at any time. Dealer prices may vary.
==Support program specifics subject to change without notice.

Canon is a registered trademark of Canon, Inc. OfficeReady is a trademark of Canon Computer Systems, Inc.

All other product and brand names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. Product specifications and features subject to change without notice.