Adobe Systems Incorporated announced the immediate availability of Adobe InDesign 2.0. Version 2.0 introduces editable transparency effects such as drop shadows, table creation, long document support, XML import/export support and a greatly enhanced printing interface. In addition, this upgrade supports Adobe’s XMP (Extensible Metadata Platform) technology, an XML-based framework for embedding, tracking and exchanging metadata so that content can be deployed more across different media. Performance enhancements have made InDesign 2.0 significantly faster. InDesign 2.0 provides native support for Mac OS X and Windows XP and tighter integration with other Adobe products. InDesign 2.0 is available immediately to customers in the United States and Canada. Estimated street price in the United States is US$699 for the full product with a special 90-day upgrade offer in the United States and Canada of US$99 (US$149 thereafter). www.adobe.com/products/indesign

Ektron Inc. released Version 2.5 of eWebEditPro, a browser-based, multi-language business-user focused Web content authoring tool. Version 2.5 delivers business-user-friendly features and developer-oriented functionality including new multilingual capabilities and enhanced change detection and formatting. Version 2.5 offers new bi-directional editing for Arabic and Hebrew, and adds traditional Chinese to ten existing European and Asian menus and dialogs. Additional new features in eWebEditPro 2.5 include Section 508 compliance (federally mandated), stylesheet enhancements, Netscape 6.2 support, and various new developer commands. eWebEditPro includes spell check and Office 2000 filters to ‘clean’ content pasted from Microsoft Word or Excel. A 10-seat eWebEditPro license for a single URL is priced at $299 ($30 per user). Enterprise pricing is available. www.ektron.com

i4i Inc., and IXIASOFT jointly announced that they have entered into a strategic partnership. The partnership will offer integration compatibility between i4i’s Tagless Editor, an end-user focused solution for creating valid XML content via a Microsoft Word interface, and IXIASOFT’s TEXTML Server, a database whose purpose is to store, index and retrieve XML content. The joint solution is targeted to meet the demand for XML management solutions that can be easily deployed across an entire organization’s community of non-technical business users. The terms of the relationship include technology compatibility as well as agreements for joint sales and marketing efforts.
www.i4i.com, www.ixiasoft.com

Software AG Inc. and Red Oak Software Inc. have formed an alliance offering customers automated, programmatic access to data on any web browser via Web Integrator, and easy integration and processing in Tamino. Under this mutual referral agreement, Software AG and Red Oak will each market a combined solution that provides customers access to previously unobtainable, critical business data residing on the proliferating number of web-based browser applications. Red Oak’s Web Integrator product automatically creates Java beans that programmatically access and retrieve any Internet content and output the content as native XML. By combining the capabilities of Web Integrator with Tamino, users now have access to previously inaccessible User Interface content for easy integration into Tamino databases. www.redoaksoftware.com, www.softwareagusa.com

Macrovision Corporation announced its new MacroSAFE Digital Copy Protection and Content Management Platform. MacroSAFE is a multi-layered, IP-based software solution that guarantees the secure distribution and management of video, audio, graphics, text and other multimedia applications to PCs and set-top boxes. It conforms to the MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 standards. The system is designed for use with any available encryption system, with built-in tamper-hardening and diagnostic features, with separation of licenses and content to increase security and flexibility. MacroSAFE’s architecture supports revocation and renewability in case of security violations, and ease of implementation at content owner level. www.macrovision.com

Peregrine Systems, Inc. has introduced its catalog applications and supplier enablement solution in North America. Peregrine catalog applications
are available on a standalone basis or as part of an integrated, end-to-end
procurement solution that combines supplier enablement and advanced asset
management functionality. As part of this launch, Peregrine also announced a relationship with Cardonet, Inc. to resell its data rationalization tools. These tools, which are bundled with Peregrine’s catalog solution, help organizations cleanse catalog content to aid in the search-and-find process. Peregrine has a suite of content management tools that help customers
aggregate, cleanse and post usable data for use in catalog procurement,
including Content Validation, Content Publishing Services, Buyer Content
Manager and Supplier Content Manager. www.peregrine.com

Vignette Corp. announced a partnership with systems integrator Oki Electric Industry Co. Ltd. to supply Web content management solutions to the Japanese market. Under terms of the agreement, Oki will market Vignette V6 and Vignette Professional Services (VPS), and the two companies will develop an education program so customers can leverage the benefits of content management in their organizations. Oki Electric will develop customer-facing applications based on its knowledge of transactional systems. Oki plans to combine the offering with its Web transaction system construction service, providing expandable and reliable Web critical content management solutions. www.vignette.com

Stellent, Inc. announced that the Stellent Content Management system now integrates with Adobe GoLive. The combined solution allows developers to easily create Web pages using a Web authoring application. GoLive joins the list of Web design applications that Stellent Content Management supports. With the GoLive integration, developers can build Web site layout templates using GoLive and then manage them through the WebDAV-compliant Stellent Content Server. The Stellent Content Publisher then uses these templates to automatically publish Web sites. The templates can be designed to enable Web sites to feature a variety of content, including unstructured content from the Stellent Content Server, content from databases and standard Web assets, such as images and HTML fragments. The integration with Adobe GoLive is immediately available as part of the Stellent Desktop product. www.stellent.com