Object linking and embedding
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Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) is a Microsoft technology.
A distributed object system and protocol from Microsoft, also used on the Acorn Archimedes. OLE allows an editor to "farm out" part of a document to another editor and then reimport it. For example, a desktop publishing system might send some text to a word processor or a picture to a bitmap editor using OLE. The main benefit of using OLE, next to reduced file size is the ability to create a master file. References to data in this file can be made and the master file can then have changed data which will then take effect in the referenced document.
It was initially used primarily for copying and pasting data between different applications, especially using drag and drop, as well as for managing compound documents. It later evolved to become an architecture for software components known as the component object model (COM), and later DCOM.
- This article was originally based on material from the Free On-line Dictionary of Computing, which is licensed under the GFDL.