10 Minute Guide to Lotus Notes Mail 4.5 - 15 - Linking and Embedding In this lesson, you discover two concepts: linking and embedding. You also learn how to use these concepts in Lotus Notes to work with other applications. Sharing Information from Other Applications To exchange information with other Notes Mail users, you can go beyond the capabilities of Notes. You can incorporate data that you created in other applications such as a spreadsheet, a word processing document, a graph, a drawing, or a scanned image. Rather than keying that information into your mail message or faxing a hard copy, you can capture it from the original program and place it in your mail memo. Then all the recipients have the ability to view the data and comment on it. There are several methods to bring data from other programs into Lotus Notes. You learned about many of those ways in previous lessons. In this lesson, you concentrate on linking and embedding. You can share information between applications using: Attached files Allow you to include copies of files in the "native" format of its originating program. (You learned about attached files in Lesson 13). Document Links Let you include a reference to another Lotus Notes document (see Lesson 14). Importing Converts data from its "native" program so you can include it in your Notes document. Generally, users import data when they can't edit or open the source document. Importing is not often used as a Lotus Notes Mail function, but is useful in other Notes databases. The 10 Minute Guide to Lotus Notes 4.5 discusses importing. Edit, Cut and Edit, Copy commands Allow you to store data temporarily in the Clipboard (a memory-holding area created by Windows or Macintosh) and then place it into your document with the Edit, Paste command. These are standard Windows commands used in almost any Windows-based program. Linking Utilizes the Clipboard (via the Cut and Copy commands) to bring data from a source document and place it into your document. Any updates to the source information will also appear in your Lotus Notes document. All users of the Notes document must have access to the source file for this to work, and the location of that file cannot change or the link will fail. Embedding Places an "object" created by another program directly into your document. You can edit the object contents by activating the source application directly from your document. Changing an embedded object does not change the source document. Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) is the communications protocol that lets you share data between two open applications. DDE is an older technology, so most programs in Windows and OS2 support it. Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) extends your ability to dynamically share information between programs and program files. Because of OLE, you can embed or link files from another application into a Lotus Notes document; or you can embed a new object and use the object's application to enter data into the Notes document. Not all applications support OLE, so you may not be able to embed files from all of your applications. Plain English: Object An object is a single piece of data such as text, graphics, sound, rich text, or animation created by an OLE-supportive application. In DDE/OLE, the "client" application requests data from the "server" (or source) application, incorporates it, and displays the object. The server application updates the object if it is linked. For example, if you want to bring Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet information into a Lotus Notes memo, Lotus 1-2-3 is the server application and Lotus Notes is the client application. As a user, you don't have to know if an application supports DDE or OLE. Lotus Notes automatically employs OLE if the server application supports it and DDE if it doesn't. Understanding Linking When you link data from an application to your Lotus Notes document, the linked object maintains a reference or pointer back to the originating file. Then, when the original file changes, the modifications also appear in the Lotus Notes document. For example, if you copy data from a Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet file containing your yearly budget into a Lotus Notes document and link the data to its source, any new data you add to the spreadsheet file at the end of the first quarter will also show up in your Notes document. Likewise, anyone else who also linked data to their own Notes document or who are using your Notes document in a shared database will also receive the updates to the spreadsheet. As a user, you can't edit or update linked data without using the source application program. You would also need access to the source file and find the file at the same drive and directory or folder as listed in the reference pointer to the source file. In other words, if the file the data came from was on the server's drive F: in the \Import directory, you need to specify F:\Import as the source location and access it from your computer. What are the advantages of linking files? You can link files between older Windows programs that don't support embedding. You can change the source file and automatically update any documents linked to it. Linked files require less memory than embedded objects. What are the disadvantages? You can't change the location of the source file or delete it entirely because you'll break the link between the documents. The linked document must be in a shared location. Links that update automatically may slow down operations. Creating Links To create a link from a source document to your Lotus Notes document: 1. Open the source file in the server application program. 2. Select the data you want to copy. 3. Choose Edit, Copy to place a copy of the data in the Clipboard. 4. Switch to Lotus Notes. 5. Open the document to which you want to add the linked data and make sure you are in the edit mode. 6. Position your cursor where you want to place the object. 7. Choose Edit, Paste Special. The Paste Special dialog box appears as shown in Figure 15.1. Figure 15.1 The Paste Special dialog box. 8. Select Paste link to source. 9. Choose a display format in the As box. The linked object appears in your Notes document, similar to Figure 15.2. Figure 15.2 The linked data shown in the document. 10. (Optional) If you'd rather see an icon in your document instead of the linked data, select Display as icon (see Figure 15.3). 11. Click OK. Figure 15.3 The data displayed as an icon. Some applications support the newer OLE 2.0 technology, which lets you link data by using drag-and-drop. To do this, starting in the server (source) application, select the data you want to link, hold down the Control and Shift keys, and drag the selected data to your Lotus Notes document. Release the mouse button to drop the data where you want it to appear in your document. Once your linked data appears in a document, Lotus Notes tries to update that information each time you open the document. A dialog box appears (see Figure 15.4), asking if you want to refresh the information. Answer Yes or No. Figure 15.4 Dialog box asking if you want to refresh the linked information. Understanding Embedding When you embed a file or object, a copy appears in the Lotus Notes document. An embedded file maintains no connection to the server (source) application file, so updates to the source file don't change your Notes document. What are the advantages of embedding? Since the Notes document and the data are stored together, you don't need to maintain links, path names, and source files. You don't even have to keep the source data because it becomes part of the Notes document. To update the embedded object, you can stay right in Lotus Notes. You don't have to go out to the source application. What are the disadvantages? The documents that contain embedded objects are larger than other documents, so they may take longer to send and they take up more storage space. If you update an embedded graphic, you may end up with a file that prints at a lower resolution than the original (not as clear a copy). The embedded document has no relationship to the original document. You have to update each document individually, instead of updating only the source document. Embedding Objects To embed a file in a Lotus Notes document: 1. Open or create the memo where you want to store the embedded file. 2. Make sure your document is in the edit mode, and then position your cursor where you want the object to appear. 3. Choose Create, Object. The Create Object dialog box appears (see Figure 15.5). Figure 15.5 The Create Object dialog box. 4. Select Create an object from a file. 5. Under File, enter the file name and path to the file. Click the Browse button to look for this information if you don't know it. 6. If you'd rather display an icon instead of the embedded data, choose Display as icon. 7. Click OK. Timesaver Tip: Drag-and-Drop Windows 95 users can drag-and-drop a file to embed it in a Lotus Notes document. Choose Start, Programs, Windows Explorer. Locate the file in the Explorer window, drag the file into the Lotus Notes window, and drop it in the Notes document where you want it to appear. To edit the data in an embedded object, double-click it to open up the file in the source application, as shown in Figure 15.6. Make your changes and click the document outside the embedded object selection border. Figure 15.6 Editing the embedded object. You can also paste data to embed it in your document: 1. In the server (source) application, select the data you want. 2. Choose Edit, Copy to copy it to the Clipboard. 3. Switch to Lotus Notes. 4. Open your document in the edit mode, and position your cursor where you want the embedded object to appear. 5. Choose Edit, Paste Special. The Paste Special dialog box appears (see Figure 15.1) 6. Select Paste. 7. From the As box, pick the source from which you copied the data. 8. If you want to display an icon instead of showing the embedded data, choose Display as icon. 9. Click OK. You can also create and embed new objects in Lotus Notes documents. A blank work file opens for the application you selected, and you enter your data in that work file. When you save your work, it saves as an object in Lotus Notes and not as a separate file. To create and embed new objects in a Lotus Notes document: 1. In Lotus Notes, open or create the document where you want to place the embedded object. Position your cursor where you want the embedded object to appear. 2. Choose Create, Object. The Create Object dialog box appears (see Figure 15.7). Figure 15.7 The Create Object dialog box. 3. Select the Create a new object option. 4. In the Object type list, select the object type that matches the application you want to use. 5. (Optional) If you want to display an icon instead of the embedded data, choose Display as icon. 6. Click OK. 7. Enter data in the blank work file (see Figure 15.8). Figure 15.8 Entering data into a blank work file. 8. There are several ways to save and exit the new object and return to your Notes document, depending on the source application that you used to create the object. Choose one of the following methods: Select File, Update. Select File, Update Lotus Notes. Select File, Exit & Return to Lotus Notes. Click the document outside the embedded object border. In this lesson, you learned about linking and embedding and how to place linked data and embedded objects in Lotus Notes documents. In the next lesson, you learn about using Mail tools.

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