Distinguishing Standalone Products From Host-Required Products

Office Compatible 97 products are divided into two broad categories: standalone products and host-required products. Although customers frequently use several products together, a standalone product can be constructively used by itself, even when no other application is running. For example, Microsoft Word is a standalone application, and although it gains power (via OLE & other integration technologies) when products such as Excel and Access are also running, it can be used alone to create a rich variety of documents.

On the other hand, a host-required application cannot be run alone. Instead, it depends on core functionality which is provided by its host, so the host must be running at all times. For example, a Word add-in is a host-required product. The add-in cannot be used by itself, but within Word, it gains the power to do its job.

Standalone and host-required products are further divided into several sub-categories, which are governed by different Office Compatible 97 testing requirements.