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

[James A. Donald]

     --
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:
 > > > 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.

James A. Donald:
 > > I, however, do not see the updates.

Karp, Alan H:
 > Evidently different versions of Word behave
 > inconsistently.

Which indicates that users keep getting confused, and
indignantly calling Microsoft help - that dynamic
linking is hard, and that dynamic linking without a
project file exposing the links is a bad user interface
design pattern.

The fact that so very few people use this facility also
suggests that it is a user hostile design pattern.

 > 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.

No they will not be lost, or at least they are not lost
in Office 2007 - rather, what happens to me seems to be
that dynamic linking gets turned off at the slightest
provocation, and dynamically linked external data
becomes internal data - have not been able to ascertain
a consistent set of rules.