Explanation of Embedded Links vs. Embedded Objects (76993)

SUMMARY

An embedded link in a Works for Windows Word Processor document is a link to an existing document in either another application that has registered itself as an OLE server, or another module of the Works for Windows program. This link contains information that allows the Word Processor module to display the linked information, start the server application that contains the linked file, and tell that application to load the linked file into memory. When you double-click an embedded link in a document, the application that owns the linked document loads that document and allows you to edit it.

To successfully create an embedded link, the source, or "server," document must be saved before the link is established. For example, to link a Works chart to a Works Word Processor document, do the following:

Technique 1

Save the chart file before linking it to the Word Processor.
From the Edit menu, choose Copy in the chart view.
In the Word Processor, choose Paste Special from the Edit menu.
Select Microsoft Works Chart and choose Paste Link.

Technique 2

Save the Chart file before linking it to the Word Processor.
In the Word Processor, choose Chart from the Insert menu.
Select the spreadsheet that contains the chart and select the chart to link.
Choose OK.

Both of the above techniques establish an embedded link in the Word Processor with the filename chosen when the chart was first saved. Works for Windows does not allow you to establish a link unless the source document has been saved first.

In Works 2.0 for Windows, if you have a picture of a chart in your Word Processor document and the source document (spreadsheet) where the chart was originally created has been deleted from the disk, you receive the following two error messages:

Cannot find file or file open

-and-

This is a picture of a chart. To learn how to link it to a sheet, choose Help.

In Works 3.0 for Windows, if you have a picture of a chart in your Word Processor document and the source document (spreadsheet) where the chart was originally created has been deleted from the disk, you receive the following error message:

Cannot find linked document

The target or "client" document cannot link it to an invalid filename. In this case, the chart would be a static or unlinked piece of information.

MORE INFORMATION

An embedded link differs from an embedded object in the following ways:

With an embedded link, only a link exists in the client document. The actual information that comprises the server document is contained in a document file that the server has created. With an embedded object, all the information to describe the object is contained in the client document. In addition, it contains information as to which application owns editing rights to that information. Therefore, when a user double-clicks an embedded link, the server application loads up the server document from disk. When the user double-clicks an embedded object, the server application is started and the information in that embedded object is transferred to the server application for editing.
Embedded links update dynamically; embedded objects do not. For example, if you update a spreadsheet in Microsoft Excel that is linked to a Works for Windows Word Processor document, the update immediately takes place in the Word Processor document as well as in the Microsoft Excel spreadsheet.