The IOleObject::GetMiscStatus method returns status information about the ActiveX designer's aspect; that is, how it should be displayed and what types of behavior it supports. This method is not required by OLE or ActiveX, but ActiveX designers must implement it.
For each aspect your ActiveX designer supports, this method should return the value of the OLE miscellaneous status flags. These flags are defined in the OLEMISC enumeration. For ActiveX designers, the OLEMISC_INVISIBLEATRUNTIME flag must be set if the run-time object does not have a user interface.
At a minimum, ActiveX designers must handle the DVASPECT_CONTENT case, which indicates how the designer should be displayed on screen or in print, as an embedded object inside a container. This aspect defines the display of the ActiveX designer within the host.
Some ActiveX designers may also need to handle the DVASPECT_DOCPRINT case, which specifies how to display a preview of printed output. This aspect is useful for showing how a visual design-time object might be rendered.
You can ignore the DVASPECT_THUMBNAIL and DVASPECT_ICON values, which denote miniature and iconic representations. Currently, hosts do not use these aspects for ActiveX designers.