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Embedding Objects

Embedding Overview

By embedding information, you gain fast access to the features of another application without having to go to that application each time you want to make a change. The technique of embedding is simple: copy a selection from one document and then insert it into another. The information you insert is called an object. When you embed an object, any instructions needed to create the object are inserted along with it. This includes the object's file format, the name of the application that created it, and information about how to display it. You don't see this information; it is simply to display and edit the object. Embedding makes editing and updating objects quick and simple. You can just double click the object to open it in its source application. Then you make your changes and Exit or choose the Update command from the source application's File menu, and the embedded object is updated automatically. You may also want to use the Object command on the Insert menu to create different types of objects in Smart Characters.

See Embedding Objects(10- 5), Editing Embedded Objects(10- 6), and Canceling Embedding(10- 6).

Embedding Objects

Embedded objects are saved as the source file data necessary for an OLE server application to create and render the object, so there need not be a source file saved by the server application.

To embed an object in a container document:

Smart Characters is both an OLE server and client. You can link Smart Characters objects to Smart Characters documents. See the Edit Object(3- 12) and Paste Special(3- 10) commands.

Editing Embedded Objects

To edit an embedded an object:

Canceling Embedding

Because the objects you embed include the information necessary to create them, embedding can increase the size of your files. You can reduce your file size by changing the object to a picture. The object remains in your document, but you can no longer change it by double clicking it.

That said, Smart Characters text representation is quite modest (a few hundred bytes) compared to the voluminous quantities of presentation data in a picture. The picture is always saved as the associated presentation data so that you can view the document on a system that does not have Smart Characters installed as a server. However, these pictures can occupy 100kb or more. We recommend disk file compression, or storage on compressed disk volumes, of documents that contain embedded or linked objects.


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Last Modified: March 23, 1996

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