Appendix D -- Cutting, Pasting, Embedding, and Linking

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Three forms of data exchange are common in Microsoft Windows:

• Static moving and copying
• Embedding
• Linking

A "static" move or copy is a one-time transaction with a no-return policy. If you copy or cut a range of numbers from your spreadsheet and paste them statically into your word processor document, your word processor handles those numbers exactly as though you had typed them directly at the keyboard. You can format them, edit them, delete them, or stand them on their heads (if your word processor does that sort of thing), but they have no further relationship to the document and program in which they originated.

When you embed one document's data in a second document, the data remembers where it came from. If you want to edit that data, Windows lets you work in the data's original context. For example, suppose you copy a block of numbers from a spreadsheet and embed them in a word processing document. When you want to edit those numbers, the original spreadsheet program reappears, allowing you to use its commands, instead of your word processor's, to do your editing.

SEE ALSO

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For more information about embedding, see "How to Embed." For more information about linking, see "How to Link."

When you link one document's data to a second document, the data you link isn't actually stored in the receiving document. Instead, the receiving program stores a visual representation of the data plus information about where the data came from. Continuing with our spreadsheet-word processor example, if you use a linking command to paste the spreadsheet numbers into your word processor document, the numbers look exactly as if you typed them in at the keyboard. But when you save that document to a disk file, the file doesn't include the numbers. Instead, it includes everything Windows needs to know to find those numbers again the next time you open the file. If you change the numbers in the spreadsheet, your changes also appear in your word processor document.

Embedding and linking also have one other important virtue: they allow you to incorporate material into your documents that your documents can't render directly. For example, you can embed or link a sound annotation or a video clip into documents created by most word processors, database managers, and spreadsheet programs. Those programs display an icon to indicate where the sound or video has been embedded or linked. When you want to hear the sound or see the video, you simply double-click the icon. Windows then renders the object, using the sound or video program in which the object originated.

TIP

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Many programs give you the option of displaying embedded or linked data as an icon, even if the program can render the data. For example, your word processor might permit you to embed a block of text but display it as an icon. The readers of your document can then skip over the embedded material if they're not interested in it. If they are interested, they can double-click the icon and read the embedded text.