[cap-talk] [Off-topic] Document linking in Microsoft OLE

[David Hopwood]

James A. Donald wrote:
> James A. Donald:
>  >> Upon reopening the Word file, I find that the word
>  >> file *asks* me for *permission* to access the
>  >> external file, rather than assuming an automatic
>  >> right to dynamically access the Excel file.  If I
>  >> deny that, the Excel data in the Word file acts as an
>  >> ordinary paste, as Excel data contained *inside* a
>  >> Word file, not as a dynamic link.
> 
> Karp, Alan H wrote:
>  > Actually, it asks me if I want to update the data from
>  > the linked files (one message no matter how many
>  > linked files).  When I say NO and open the file from
>  > inside Word, I see the updates.
> 
> I, however, do not see the updates.

Evidently different versions of Word behave inconsistently.

In any case, what matters is which behaviours are reasonable.
I don't find the Word 2007 behaviour you describe particularly
reasonable. Suppose that the linked file is updated on disk but
not in Word, and then you save it from within Word. The on-disk
changes will then be lost.

I can very easily imagine doing this accidentally; even without
document linking, I quite often end up losing updates as a result
of accidentally opening a document more than once.

(The IDE distributed with Borland C++ 1.x for DOS is the only
application I have *ever* seen that did what I want in that
situation -- you could open a file any number of times, and
typing in one window would instantly make the same change in
the others. I really miss that IDE.)

-- 
David Hopwood <david.hopwood at industrial-designers.co.uk>