### OLE terminology

Before you work with OLE objects in Seagate Crystal Reports, it might be helpful to review some terminology:

- OLE
  OLE is an acronym for Object Linking and Embedding. It refers to the ability to create compound reports; that is, reports that contain elements from other applications that can be edited using the original application.
- OLE Object
  An OLE object is, broadly speaking, a presentation of data that was created in another application and that maintains a relationship with the application that was used to create it. A bitmap created in Paint, an Excel spreadsheet, or a graph from MS Graph may all be OLE objects if they are inserted in the receiving document as OLE objects. If they are not inserted as OLE objects, they retain no relationship with the original application.
- OLE Container Application
  An OLE container application is one that can contain and process OLE objects created in other applications (such as Paint or Excel). Seagate Crystal Reports is a container application.
- Container Document
  A container document is a document that was created using the container application and that contains an OLE object.
- OLE Server Application
  An OLE server application is an application that is able to create OLE objects which can then be placed into container documents. Microsoft Word and Excel are examples of applications that are both OLE servers and OLE containers. That is, they can both create new OLE objects and they can contain OLE objects created elsewhere.
- Server Document
  The server document is a file created in the server application that stores the original OLE object.

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