SAS Companion for the Microsoft Windows Environment

Converting OLE Objects

An OLE object can be associated with only one server application, but some OLE objects can be converted for use with a different server application than the one that created them.

You can convert an object by using the Convert dialog box (shown in Convert Dialog Box). This dialog box lets you:

change the object's view from an icon to object content and vice-versa.
change the object's type from one server application to another. For example, you can convert a Microsoft Excel object to a Lotus 1-2-3 object, provided that you have the server application that can convert the object on your system. This type of conversion is permanent.
activate the object with a different server application than originally created it, without altering the object type. For example, you can choose to activate a Lotus 1-2-3 object using Microsoft Excel as a server. This allows you to edit the object as if it were an Excel object. The object continues to be a Lotus 1-2-3 object. All subsequent Lotus 1-2-3 OLE objects you create will use Excel as an OLE server, unless you change the conversion settings again.

Convert Dialog Box

[IMAGE]

To convert an OLE object within a SAS/AF FRAME entry:

Click on the object with the right mouse button.
At the bottom of the pop-up menu, select the object's name (thus revealing the cascading menu).
In the cascading menu, select Convert.... The Convert dialog box appears, listing the valid object types to which you can convert the selected object.
If you want to actually convert the object to another type, select the desired target object type and click on [OK].
If you want to toggle the object between icon view and content view, check Display As Icon.
If you want to activate the object using another server, click on Activate as and then select the server application to use.
Click on [OK].

An alternate way to open the Convert dialog box for an OLE object is to select the object and issue the DLGCONVERT command on the command line. Also, you can use the _EXECUTE_ method in SCL to invoke the DLGCONVERT command. For example:

call notify('sheetobj','_execute_',
            'dlgconvert');

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