An OLE server is any application that can edit an object when the OLE libraries inform it that the user of a client application has selected the object. (Some servers can perform operations on an object other than editing.) When the user double-clicks an object in a client application, the server associated with that object starts and the user works with the object inside the server application. When the server starts, its window is typically sized so that only the object is visible. If the user double-clicks a linked object, the entire linked file is loaded and the linked portion of the file is selected. For embedded objects, the user chooses the Update command from the File menu to save changes to the object and chooses Exit when finished.
Many applications are capable of acting as both clients and servers for linked and embedded objects.