The Benefits of OLE in Windows 3.1

• Microsoft Windows operating system versions 3.1, 3.11

SUMMARY

This article describes the advantages that OLE provides in the Microsoft Windows operating environment version 3.1.

With OLE, applications can specialize in performing one job well. For example, a drawing application specializes in drawing only; it no longer needs text-editing tools because you can bring in the text into the drawing using an OLE link to a text editor that supports OLE.

Applications can automatically be extended for future data formats because the content of an object being linked uses the OLE interface, and the client application does not care what is being linked.

You can concentrate on the task you are performing instead of concentrating on multiple applications required to complete the task. This concept can be summarized as a task-centric, rather than tool- centric, view of computing (that is, you can concentrate on the document you are producing, not the application you are using to produce it.

Files can be more compact with OLE. The data of a linked object is stored in the original server document, rather than in the client document. For example, if you link your company's revenue spreadsheet to three different Word for Windows documents, the spreadsheet is stored on the disk one time only. The Word documents require only a link to the spreadsheet.

With OLE, you can print or transmit documents without using the application that originally produced the document.

You can update linked objects in a file dynamically. (That is, when you update a linked object [not an embedded object], the other instances or copies of the linked object are also updated.) As in the earlier example, if the spreadsheet is updated, the link is maintained to the other three Word for Windows documents. When opened, each Word document displays the updated data.