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Corel Corp. has released WordPerfect Office 12 Small Business Edition, a new software package developed specifically to meet the needs of small to medium businesses with fewer than 50 PC users. The Business Edition costs hundreds of dollars less than competing small business products from Microsoft.

Offered for a price as low as $179 (U.S.), the suite professional-grade software in a combination configured for small business, including word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, e-mail, photo editing, security software and templates. It also includes content, wizards, templates and a task manager.

WordPerfect Office 12 Small Business Edition's new e-mail application, WordPerfect Mail, offers e-mail communication and e-mail search, plus shared calendaring, spam blocking, and RSS feeds without the need to invest in mail-server infrastructure.

The suite has an innovative, task-oriented approach designed to take users' focus off their tools and put it on the tasks ahead.

The focal point is the Task Manager, a launching pad that centralizes tasks in one window. The Task Manager comes complete with templates, tutorials and access to on-line services.

WordPerfect Mail provides fast search capabilities, spam-blocking, a contact manager, shared calendaring, RSS feeds and doesn't require an expensive in-house mail server. WordPerfect Mail can send and receive e-mail from any ISP or mail server that supports POP3 or IMAP protocols—including Microsoft Exchange.

WordPerfect 12, Corel's word processor, is compatible with Microsoft Word and a variety of other popular word processor file formats and includes the ability to publish natively to PDF, without using Adobe Acrobat.

Quattro Pro 12 is Corel's spreadsheet application, which opens, edits and saves Microsoft Excel files, including Microsoft Excel 2003, and accepts Excel files exported by many small business accounting packages. A versatile Workspace Manager lets customers work in Excel, Lotus 1-2-3 or Quattro Pro modes.

Presentations 12 lets users make presentations compatible with Microsoft PowerPoint.

Paint Shop Pro 9, an image editor for photos, graphics, or digital art, is also included. Images edited in Paint Shop Pro can be imported into WordPerfect and Presentations.

WordPerfect OfficeReady Business Essential Templates are for the creation of structured documents with templates for daily planners, calendars and agendas, budgets, planning and forecasting, business presentations, reports, stationery, and marketing materials. The companion Business Plans Templates includes a user guide and a set of professionally designed templates for creating professional business plans. Also included are financial analysis templates and sample business plans ranging from restaurants, franchisees, distributors and manufacturers.

Norton Internet Security 2005 is also included, to protect business from viruses, hackers and spam. This special edition of Norton Internet Security 2005 includes the Norton AntiVirus, Norton Personal Firewall, Norton Privacy Control, Norton AntiSpam, and a complimentary 90-day subscription to protection updates.

Starting this week, WordPerfect Office 12 Small Business Edition will be available for the suggested retail price of $179 (U.S.) for the upgrade version, and $349 for the full version. In Canada, the retail price is $229 (Cdn.) for theupgrade and $439 for the full suite.