Question & Answer
Question
When you add OLE files on a chart, you can choose to put them as Linked OLE objects.
This means that if the content of the initial file is modified, the changes are reflected on the chart.
ANB has a function that allows you to specify how you want the changes to be reflected.
This is under the File menu, Chart Properties - OLE Links
Some of the files may not be showing up on the list. Typically, you would find the Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Wordpad documents.
But you would not find files that are PDF, JPG, PNG, TXT...
So, the question is why some of the Linked OLE objects are showing up on the OLE Links list, and others are not...
Cause
This behaviour is normal. It is defined by Windows, not by Analysts Notebook.
Windows provides file associations, so that a file type is associated with an application; eg you double click on a PDF file and Adobe Reader starts up.
However, not every file association in Windows is an OLE association. OLE is just one specific way of associating data and applications. If an application implements Windows' IOleObject() interface, then there is an OLE linking. If no software on the machine has registered an IOleObject() interface for *.PDF files (for example) then *.PDF files cannot be packaged using OLE.
Analysts Notebook does implement the IOleObject() interface. So *.anb charts can be embedded into other OLE applications. For example, you can go into Excel, chose the Insert ribbon, Object and insert a *.anb file into an Excel spreadsheet. But you can't insert a PDF file into a spreadsheet as an OLE type object, because (by default) there's no PDF OLE handler on a Windows machine. You can embed a PDF file in an Excel spreadsheet and open it by double clicking, but that isn't an OLE connection.
If you installed Adobe Acrobat on the machine, that would install an OLE handler for PDF files and they might become OLE type objects after that.
So, you can insert many types of Files into an ANB chart, and they will work as expected (meaning that the files can be opened with their respective associated softwares). But the only files that can be embedded as OLE objects are the types associated with an OLE application on the machine. These are the Object types that are listed in the "Insert Object" dialogue box. For example "Paintbrush picture" meaning BMP files. BMP files can be inserted as OLE objects, but JPG file cannot.
Answer
In short, ANB is working as expected, and the OLE objects on the ANB charts relies heavily on the way Windows manages OLE objects (through the IOleObjects() interface).
You can learn more about OLE objects in Windows, and the IOleObject() interface on Google.
Related Information
[{"Line of Business":{"code":"LOB24","label":"Security Software"},"Business Unit":{"code":"BU059","label":"IBM Software w\/o TPS"},"Product":{"code":"SSXUXD","label":"i2 Analyst's Notebook"},"ARM Category":[{"code":"a8m50000000Cb1dAAC","label":"i2 Analyst's Notebook and other i2 software->Chart"}],"ARM Case Number":"","Platform":[{"code":"PF025","label":"Platform Independent"}],"Version":"All Version(s)"}]
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Document Information
Modified date:
22 October 2020
UID
ibm16351397