Any program that supports OLE automation can run the Ability application "from outside". For example, you may have a custom database application and want to press a button that launches Write with a letter and insert the address block from the details in the current record.
The exact syntax to use depends on your development environment. For an application that supports VBScript (for example, all the Ability applications and WSCRIPT.EXE and CSCRIPT.EXE that ship with Windows 98) you can use the following commands to start an Ability application:
Set app = CreateObject("AbilityDatabase.Application")
Set app = CreateObject("AbilitySpreadsheet.Application")
Set app = CreateObject("AbilityWrite.Application")
Note: the Set statement is part of the VBScript language and allows you to create a reference to an object. In the above case, CreateObject creates an instance of the named application and the Set statement makes the variable app point to the application object. If you used this syntax instead:
app = CreateObject("AbilityDatabase.Application")
the implication would be that you are trying to make a copy of an application (i.e. your computer memory would be holding two separate running applications) and this is not allowed.
Now the application has been started, you'll need to something useful, like create a new document or open a database.