Let me take the rose out of my teeth long enough to tell you a little about Ole. It is one of those funny little computer terms and stands for Object Linking and Embedding. Are you properly intimidated? I hope not, because you probably use Ole every day. If you're not using it on purpose, you may after reading this. At the very least, it will be one more tune to whistle (besides "Dixie") when you are pounding away on your keyboard.

When you copy text or a graphic from one program and past it in another program, you are making it part of your new document. That's it. It will just sit there and you had better be happy with it, or delete it and search for something else. When you do it the "Olé Way", it still has a relationship of sorts with the program you are taking the text or graphic from. This allows you to double-click on the object, let's say it's a picture, and bring up the program you got it from. You can make changes to it, exit the program, and be right back to your document, with your changes in front of you.

When you insert an object or use the paste special functions on your menus, you are using Ole. Try this in your word processing program. Click the word insert. Then click object. In some programs, you may have to click edit, then look for the insert object option. You should see a whole list of choices for you to scroll through. Microsoft Clip Art Gallery is a good place to start. When you choose it, the Clip Art Gallery program will pop up and you can choose from lots of clip art to put into your document.

After you have made your choice and clicked OK, you will be returned to your document. You can make the picture bigger, smaller, move it, etc. If you change your mind and decide you want a different picture, just double-click on it and you will be returned to Clip Art Gallery, where you can make another choice.

Before you paste something the next time, try using paste special. Sometimes it gives you the option to link it with the program it came from (meaning you can double-click on it to
edit it).

By the way, when you click insert and object, all those choices appear because they were registered with Windows as Ole Servers when the software for them was installed. Some of the titles may be familiar, some may surprise you. They sure surprised me!

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