San Diego, CA. September 30, 2008- SmartDraw.com, maker of the world’s most popular business graphics software, today announced the release of SmartDraw 2009, containing dramatically enhanced functionality and exclusive new features that help business people improve communications, better organize ideas, refine their operations and simply work smarter. “Business people understand that a picture is worth a thousand words when trying to express key ideas,” said Paul Stannard, SmartDraw.com CEO. “Because SmartDraw draws for them, illustrating a process with a flowchart, brainstorming with a mind map, planning a product launch with a project chart or organizing personnel with an org chart become easy ways to convey clear, compelling, and often critically important points.” The innovations in SmartDraw 2009 empower anyone to create high-impact graphics with a learning curve of just minutes. New features include: • Seamless PowerPoint® Integration with Built-In Animation Using animation to reveal information step-by-step with each click is a key feature for helping audiences fully comprehend what the presenter is trying to convey. SmartDraw 2009 easily turns an unfocused, “busy” presentation into one that captures attention. With just one mouse click, SmartDraw transfers a graphic into a PowerPoint® slide with built-in animation. SmartDraw applies these animation cues automatically and preserves them when the graphic is moved into PowerPoint®. The result is a more compelling and memorable presentation. SmartDraw is the only business graphics program with this level of integration with PowerPoint®. • Faster, Easier Project Management. New project management features include more control, increased automation and improved customization of Gantt charts and timelines. SmartDraw offers real project management without the complexity and learning curve of a product like Microsoft Project®. • Quicker Flowcharting. Flowcharts are drawn automatically, using simple commands. Users can even build one without taking their fingers off the keyboard. Lines are drawn automatically. Formatting is automatic: shapes are evenly spaced and perfectly aligned. • Improved ImageCharts and ExpressCharts. With ImageCharts, use pictures and images to display information instead of boring lines, bars, and circles. Simply drag any image—even a photo—onto a chart, and watch the data come alive. Or, create real charts and graphs of every kind without making a spreadsheet first with improved ExpressCharts. • Stunning New Presentation Effects. Stunning new effects such as 3D graphs and perspective view take presentations to the next level. Includes new themes for storyboarding presentations, as well as more synergy with PowerPoint®. Improved special effects add extra flair. • Automatic Mind Maps and Org Charts. Like flowcharts, mind maps and org charts are also drawn for the user with simple commands. Trees can now expand or hide depending on desired output to show various levels of hierarchy. • Realistic Live Maps with Google. The new Live Map feature captures data from Google maps to incorporate roads, regions, counties, zip codes, countries and even satellite images from across the globe into illustrations. With SmartDraw 2009 users can now plot data centered on a location, showing sales by region for example, making for an incredibly professional effect when presenting area-related data. • Automatically Map a Network. SmartDraw can now network according to lightweight directory access protocol (LDAP), resulting in a clear, comprehensive network diagram. • Smart Website Mapping. Users can simply type in the website domain and SmartDraw automatically generates a “smart” website map, organizing the pages in an intelligent, understandable way. • Better, Faster Floor Plans. Floor plans include smarter walls and easier manipulation of shapes, as well as easy snap-on windows and doors. New dimension lines and area measurements make creating accurate floor plans easier than ever. • Sticky Notes. Add special explanatory notes to any shape with new “sticky notes” in SmartDraw. The note appears only when the cursor scrolls over the object so notes never clutter a diagram. SmartDraw’s 2009 Healthcare and Legal editions give its users upgraded features specific to those professions, including more than 2,000 new templates, worksheets and symbols for healthcare, as well as worksheets, additional content and improved crime scene capabilities for legal professionals. SmartDraw 2009 works seamlessly with Microsoft Office, allowing one-click export to MS PowerPoint®, Word® and Excel®, making it easy to share SmartDraw graphics with others in plans, reports, and presentations. SmartDraw offers a variety of licensing options and programs, including educational pricing. A free trial is available at www.smartdraw.com and includes both online and telephone technical support. About SmartDraw.com SmartDraw.com is the creator of SmartDraw, the world's most popular business graphics software and the first program that empowers ordinary computer users to create presentation-quality business graphics in minutes. Each year more than three million people install and use SmartDraw and the company counts more than half of the members of the Fortune 500 as loyal customers. Founded in 1994, SmartDraw.com is privately-held and based in San Diego, CA. In addition to SmartDraw 2009 for general business and home use, the company also offers SmartDraw Healthcare and SmartDraw Legal editions which include graphics and applications unique to their respective fields. For more information on the company or to download a free trial of SmartDraw, please visit www.smartdraw.com.