Hello jim2003,
Thank you for your question.
Actually, it is a technique for creating documents that interact with
the user and can be used over a network such as the Internet, but even
more appropriately, a local business network.
Linktionary defines Active Documents as follows:
http://www.linktionary.com/a/active_doc.html
"Active Document
An active document is a document that has links to programs or other
information sources. The link may display information in the document
that is either continually updated, updated only when the document is
loaded, or updated when the user requests it..."
This Adobe .pdf document explains Active Docs well:
http://archive.devx.com/premier/mgznarch/vbpj/1997/08aug97/franklin.pdf
"Do you feel as though you were in a coma for the last year, while
Microsoft, Sun, and Netscape slung technologies at one another in an
all-out war to own the Internet? Should you learn Java? C? Visual
Basic? Do you feel that people expect you to know all this stuff
because you are a Windows programmer?
Well, join the club.
This article puts a number of technologies in context, including Java,
VBScript, and Active Server Pages (ASP). It also demonstrates how to
take advantage of one of the most exciting new technologies from
Microsoft: Active Documents, or AXDocs, in geek shorthand. This
article also shows how to build a couple of sample apps with AXDocs.
The first example shows how to write an app that runs inside the
browser. The app displays any BMP, GIF, or JPG file, and lets you zoom
in on the files using a scrollbar. Although simple, the app
demonstrates the power of AXDocs over using ActiveX controls and
VBScript. The second example demonstrates a more substantive
application, docData, which uses the Internet Transfer Control to
return sample data from a SQL Server database through an ASP page.
When the user fills out a form and hits the “Send” button, the data is
sent to another ASP file, which saves the data to the database and
returns an acknowledgment. Before launching into how to create the
sample apps, let’s take a look at some of the new technologies
available, as well as the best place to use them. For example, AXDocs
make more sense on intranets than on the Internet—at least right
now..."
...CREATE A NEW TYPE OF PROGRAM
VB5 lets you create a new type of program called an Active Document
Server. Think of an AXDoc server as a VB form with no window border
that runs inside Microsoft Internet Explorer (or other AXDoc hosts).
The menus map into IE’s menus, and the client area of IE becomes your
VB form’s client area. You can compile AXDocs as DLLs or EXEs. DLLs
run “in process”—the objects run within the address space of the host
app. EXEs run “out of process,” which means that the objects run in
their own memory space, outside the memory space of the host
application. In-process servers typically run faster but cannot exist
outside the host process..."
You might wish to read this entire 7 page article, but for now, the
distinction is that this is yet another technique, such as Visual
Basic, for creating applications in Microsoft Office Applications and
that run, for example, in a browser.
Microsoft Developer's Network has this to say:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/vccore98/HTML/vcconactivedocuments.asp
"Active Documents
Active documents extend the compound document technology of OLE. These
extensions are provided in the form of additional interfaces that
manage views, so that objects can function within containers and yet
retain control over their display and printing functions. This process
makes it possible to display documents both in foreign frames (such as
the Microsoft Office Binder or Microsoft Internet Explorer) and in
native frames (such as the product’s own view ports)..."
I don't know your level of expertise so the above may seem like Greek
to you. If not, read on at MSDN for in depth understanding of the
inner workings of Active Documents.
There are other articles in the series including:
Overview of Active Document Containment
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/vccore98/HTML/vcconactivedocuments.asp
and - Example of Active Document Containment: Office Binder
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/vccore98/HTML/vcconactivedocuments.asp
and - Active Documents on the Internet
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/vccore/html/_core_internet_first_steps.3a_.activex_documents.asp
" Active documents provide an extension to traditional embedded
objects. The Active documents may be multipage and are displayed in
the entire client area. They do traditional menu negotiation, and can
be edited in-place as well as in an open window in the server
application. Instead of displaying as a small rectangle surrounded by
a hatched border, Active documents are full frame and always in-place
active.
Active documents can be viewed in a container like the Microsoft
Office Binder, which provides a way to create a compound document made
up of different document types like Excel, Word, and your custom
document type, each of which can be edited full frame. Active
documents can also be displayed in a browser such as Microsoft
Internet Explorer, which is an Active document container.
Active document advantages include:
-Documents can be viewed full frame, in the entire client window.
-Documents can be opened in a separate application window.
-For the document to open, the helper application must exist on the
client, or be downloaded separately before the application can run. A
viewer may be written to provide limited functionality (Word,
PowerPoint, and Excel provide viewers for their documents). The full
version of the application can provide full editing support.
-Documents are always in-place active.
-Menu commands invoked from the container can be routed to your
document.
-Documents can be viewed in a Web browser. This provides seamless
integration between your documents and other Web pages.
-A user can browse an HTML Web page, then an Excel spreadsheet, and
then to a document that you have written using MFC support for Active
documents. The user can navigate using the familiar Web interface, as
the browser switches seamlessly between the menus and views of an HTML
page, Excel, and your application's document.
All applications are displayed in a common frame..."
Keylogix makes an Office companion product to ease the creation of
Active Documents:
http://www.activedocs.com/product/activedocs2002/whatisactivedocs.asp
"What is ActiveDocs?
With ActiveDocs your documents can start thinking for themselves, so
that you'll have more time to focus on business objectives.
ActiveDocs is a companion product for Microsoft Office. It
significantly shortens document creation time by allowing you to focus
on content, rather than typing, cutting and pasting, formatting and
other tiresome tasks.
With ActiveDocs, full automation is easily added to Word templates
without the need for programming or coding skills.
Contracts, proposals, reports and letters can be assembled in a
matter of seconds, and users can get data from virtually any external
data source without ever leaving their document.
Authoring Tools are easy to use – templates can be altered or updated
without calling on the IT department or programmers..."
I'm sure there are other third party products that address these
functions, as well.
Search Strategy:
"Microsoft Active Documents"
AXdocs
"active documents" +"microsoft office"
I trust my research has provided an overview of Active Documents and
answered your question. If a link above should fail to work or
anything require further explanation or research, please do post a
Request for Clarification prior to rating the answer and closing the
question and I will be pleased to assist further.
Regards,
-=clouseau=- |
