When a user chooses the Links command, a dialog box appears listing every linked object in the document. The selected links are highlighted in the dialog box. The dialog box makes it possible for the user to invoke the verbs for an object, select whether link updating should be automatic or manual, update a link immediately, cancel a link, and repair broken links. For more information about this dialog box, see Microsoft Windows User Interface Guidelines.
The Links dialog box includes buttons that allow the user to activate the primary and secondary verbs for an object. A client application can implement these buttons by using the OleActivate function.
A client application can use the OleGetLinkUpdateOptions and OleSetLinkUpdateOptions functions to support the link-update radio buttons in the Links dialog box. The following are the three possible update options:
| Option | Description |
| oleupdate_always | Update the linked object whenever possible. This option supports the Automatic link-update radio button in the Links dialog box. |
| oleupdate_onsave | Update the linked object when the source document is saved by the server. |
| oleupdate_oncall | Update the linked object only on request from the client application. This option supports the Manual link-update radio button in the Links dialog box. |
These update options control when updates to the presentation of an object occur. The contents of the source document are used to update the presentation whenever the link is activated.
To support the Update Now button in the Links dialog box, an application can call the OleUpdate function. When a user chooses Update Now, the client application should update the links the user selected.
A user's choosing the Cancel Link button in the Links dialog box changes an object into a picture that an application cannot edit by using standard OLE techniques. An application can implement the Cancel Link button by using the OleObjectConvert function.
A client application should activate the Change Link button in the Links dialog box only if all the selected links are to the same source document. When the client has the correct information, it can repair the link by using the OleGetData and OleSetData functions. To retrieve the link information for an object, a client can call the OleGetData function, specifying the ObjectLink format. (The call to OleGetData fails if ObjectLink is specified and the object is not a link.) A client can retrieve class information by using OleGetData and specifying either the OwnerLink format (for embedded objects) or the ObjectLink format (for linked objects). The client can make it possible for the user to edit the link information and store it in the object by using the OleSetData function, specifying the ObjectLink format.