Linking and embedding documents

On some occasions, you may find you need to insert a chart or part of a spreadsheet (or both) into a report you are creating in Write. It could be that you want to create a new spreadsheet that will only exist within the current document, or you may want to insert a spreadsheet that you've already created. Further, you may want the document to automatically update should the original spreadsheet change.

These are all examples of a standard Windows technique called Object Linking and Embedding (or OLE for short), which Ability uses to enable such documents to be created. In this case, the Object is the spreadsheet, Embedding refers to the inclusion of an object within the current document (as in the first two examples above), and Linking refers to the "live" display of external data (as in the final example above).

All the Ability applications support OLE to some extent, as do many other non-Ability applications (meaning that Ability can share data with other applications).

Here’s a list of what can be inserted and where:

Application

Include objects from

Write

Spreadsheet (including charts), Draw, and any external applications that support OLE

Spreadsheet

Write, Draw, and any external applications that support OLE

Database OLE field

Spreadsheet (including charts), Write, Draw, and any external applications that support OLE

Draw (and Database forms)

Spreadsheet, Chart, Write, and any external applications that support OLE

External programs (non -Ability applications supporting OLE).

Write, Spreadsheet, Chart, and Draw.

The following sections tell you all about object linking and embedding, as well as giving some examples.

See:

Object linking

Object embedding

For examples of how this can be put into practice (it's much easier to do than the terminology might suggest), see one of the following:

Inserting a spreadsheet into a Write document

Inserting a chart into a Write document

Inserting a Draw document into Write or Spreadsheet

Inserting an image into Write or Speadsheet