FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE For more information please contact: Xanthus International Xanthus USA Jesper Lundh David Peter Phone: +46-8-635 30 62 Phone: +1-619-632-9700 Fax: +46-8-98 70 67 Fax: +1-619-632-9702 Email: info@xanthus.se Email: info@xanthus.com Xanthus Ships v 3.0 of Questor Spreadsheet Application for NEXTSTEP Includes high level Excel 4.0 file compatibility Stockholm, June 15, 1994 - Xanthus International AB today announced that it has begun shipping version 3.0 of Questor, its spreadsheet application for the NEXTSTEP computing environment. Registered users of Questor 2.0 will automatically receive an upgrade offer to version 3.0. Questor 3.0 is delivered as 'fat' (MAB) binaries for Motorola, Intel and PA/RISC processors. Questor 3.0 will be shown in the Alembic booth at NEXTSTEP Expo and in the Xanthus Suite at the San Francisco Marriott near Moscone Center. _________________________________________ Questor 3.0 is the most user-friendly and powerful spreadsheet application for NEXTSTEP. It combines the intuitive metaphor of "matrix-based" spreadsheet programs with a number of unique features and a true NEXTSTEP user interface. Together with the OpenWrite word processor, Questor is one of the cornerstones in the Open Office product suite from Xanthus. The backbone of Questor 3.0 is a conventional matrix-based spreadsheet that can easily be used by anybody who has once used spreadsheet programs like Microsoft Excel, Lotus 1-2-3 or Wingz. To this backbone is added a number of unique features, including easy-to-use SQL database access, a powerful scripting language, multi-level undo and a versatile API. Questor 3.0 is designed to be extremely easy to integrate with SQL databases and custom-made applications on NEXTSTEP. Questor 3.0 is the third release of the application. Questor 1.0 was released in May 1993. --- New features in Questor 3.0 include: - Significantly improved performance regarding worksheet recalculation and file access, especially for large documents. - Very high level of Microsoft Excel 4.0 file compatibility. Excel 4.0 files can actually be imported into Questor, edited, and exported back to Excel 4.0, without losing any formatting or style information. - Full support for Excel 4.0 compatible cell styles. - More than 100 new functions to better support the Excel 4.0 function set in the area of finance, math and statistics. - Full support for the new Open Object Embedding (OOE) standard from Xanthus. Worksheets can be created and edited from within OpenWrite word processor documents. - Print/scrolling titles. - Improved user interface. Easier access to commonly used functions, and improved menu structure. --- Standard Questor features: - A state-of-the-art user interface for easy access to all features, including a ToolBox with object palettes and a number of other tools that removes the need of modal panels for filling, searching and sorting data. - Multi-level undo. All commands can be undone and the number of undos are user defined. - Reads the BIFF2-4, WKS, WK1 and SYLK file-formats, which enables you to import worksheets from Lotus 1-2-3, Lotus Improv, Microsoft Excel and Wingz. - Writes the BIFF4 and WK1 file-format, which enables you to export worksheets to Microsoft Excel, Lotus 1-2-3, Lotus Improv and Wingz. - Powerful report layout functions that allows total control over the layout of your documents, including direct manipulation and drawing tools. - Many graph types are supported, including bar, stacked bar, line, combination, stock, area, stacked area, scatter (xy-plot) and pie. The components of a graph can be edited separately. - Hot-links to Graphity (like Lotus Improv and Presentation Builder). Graphity is a business graphics application from Xanthus that supports 3D graphs based on Renderman. - Seamless connections to relational databases like Oracle and Sybase using the Database Kit in NEXTSTEP. - Timers that can trigger complex calculations, database queries or any other event at regular intervals. - A powerful structured scripting language - QScript with an "intelligent" editor, including automatic pretty-printing and programming support. QScript allows you to customize your worksheet to perform very specific tasks. - Input controllers like buttons, text-fields and sliders can be drag-and-dropped anywhere on the worksheet, and connected to QScript code or directly to cells by control-dragging. - Output objects like graphs and gauges can be drag-and-dropped anywhere on the worksheet, and be connected to cell areas by control-dragging for continuous updating. - A powerful double-directed API that allows Questor to easily control and send data to other applications. The API also makes it easy for other applications to control Questor and to feed data into worksheets. - External functions can be written in C or in QScript and be loaded into Questor for easy extensibility. - Full support for user palettes. Users can easily create new palettes with customized graphs, graphics and control objects. - Drawing tools that allows you to draw directly on the worksheet. - Images and sound can be drag-and-dropped anywhere on the worksheet to create stunning documents including graphics and sound effects. - Full support for object linking. Graphs, cell areas and graphics can be copied and linked into other documents for continuous updating. Xanthus International, headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, is a privately owned software development company that specializes in the NEXTSTEP platform.Xanthus was founded in 1990, and shipped its first product, CraftMan, an award-winning multimedia programming tool for NEXTSTEP in 1992. The product line now includes Questor, a spreadsheet; Graphity, a 3D charting program that supports RenderMan; the new OpenWrite word processor, and OpenBase, a flat-file database.