by Jim O'Donnell
As part of its ActiveX technologies plan to "Activate the Internet," Microsoft has introduced ActiveX Documents. ActiveX Documents are documents created in Microsoft Office applications, and other compatible applications such as Lotus, Micrografix, and Visio, that can be viewed inline in a Web browser. When an URL points to such a document, and the Web server serving it is configured with the correct MIME types, the appropriate application is launched within the Internet Explorer (or other compatible Web browser) window. From there, the user can view, save a local copy of, and (if the application supports it) even edit the document.
As more and more information becomes available on the Web, companies,
individuals, and other content providers are faced with the task
of what to do with hundreds and thousands of documents already
in existence that are not in a Web-friendly format, such as HTML.
While programs exist to convert such documents in many such formats
to HTML, their results are usually imperfect, and the conversion
task daunting. The ideal solution would be for Web browsers to
support viewing of these legacy documents, such a Microsoft
Word or Excel documents, Lotus spreadsheets, and others, in their
original form.
| NOTE |
The term legacy is used to refer to documents and applications that have been in existence for some time-well before the existence of the World Wide Web-in which individuals and organizations have invested time, effort, and information |
Also, if Web browsers were capable of easily editing these legacy documents, then the task of using the Web for collaboration would become more feasible.
In Chapter 30, "Document Types for Business," third-party Web browser plug-ins that add this functionality were discussed. In this chapter, Microsoft's solution to the problem of accessing legacy documents is discussed. Microsoft's ActiveX Document technology gives Internet Explorer the capability to use the legacy applications themselves to allow users to view these documents within the Web browser window. Netscape Navigator, through the DocActive and ScriptActive plug-ins available from NCompass Labs, also supports ActiveX Documents.
While the technology behind supporting ActiveX Documents within
a Web browser is very complex, in operation they are very straightforward.
If you have the appropriate applications installed on your system,
using ActiveX Documents is completely transparent. Other than
the applications themselves, a compatible Web browser is required,
such as Internet Explorer 3, or Netscape Navigator with the NCompass
Labs DocActive or ScriptActive plug-in (see the "ActiveX
Documents in Netscape Navigator" section later in this chapter).
| CAUTION |
To make use of ActiveX Documents, your Office applications must also be ActiveX Document compatible. For the Microsoft Office Suite of applications, this means that they must be the Microsoft Office 95 versions. If you or your users don't have Office or have older versions, Microsoft provides freeware viewers that support ActiveX Documents, as discussed in the "Document Viewers" section later in this chapter |
Figure 51.1 shows Microsoft Word being used to view a Word document inline within Internet Explorer. Whenever a Word document is opened by Internet Explorer, either a local file or one on the Internet, Internet Explorer launches Microsoft Word to use it as a viewer.
As shown in Figure 51.2, Microsoft Word's toolbars appear within the Web browser window as well, and can be used as usual. In fact, the document can be edited inline while viewing it with Internet Explorer. Word's menus are also present-the menu bar is a merger of the menus of Word and Internet Explorer.
While your users can view and edit Word (or other ActiveX) documents, the ActiveX Document technology does not allow them to save edited versions back across the Internet to their original source. Users are able to save local copies of the original or edited versions of the document, however. (The fact that edited versions of documents can only be saved locally is true for all ActiveX Document formats.)
As shown in Figure 51.3, viewing a Microsoft Excel document through Internet Explorer results in the document being opened within the Web browser window using the Excel application. When viewing the document, the full functionality of Excel to access, view, and manipulate the spreadsheet data is available.
| NOTE |
For financial, scientific, or other Web sites containing lots of data and information and requiring processing of that data, using Excel ActiveX Documents provides a third alternative. CGI scripts are capable of performing data processing at the server and JavaScripts and VB Scripts can perform it on the client. By providing an actual Excel spreadsheet, complete with cell formulas and macros defined, you can allow a much greater range of data processing |
Microsoft PowerPoint presentations can also be opened and viewed as ActiveX Documents within a compatible Web browser (see Figure 51.4). The Web capabilities that Microsoft has added to PowerPoint (whose capabilities make it ideal for creating multimedia presentations on the Web) go much further than this, however. This is discussed in the "Internet Assistant for PowerPoint" and "PowerPoint Animation Player for ActiveX" sections later in this chapter.
Figure 51.4 : PowerPoint slides and slide shows can be viewed and changed within Internet Explorer.
The primary function of Microsoft's freeware Internet Assistant add-ins, available through the Microsoft Office Web site, is to convert documents from a variety of different formats into HTML, the opposite approach of the ActiveX Documents technology. They are a useful way to convert documents from other formats into a form suitable for Web viewing, especially if your audience is not yet using ActiveX Document-compatible Web browsers. There are Internet Assistants available for Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, and Schedule+.
The Internet Assistants can serve two functions for Web authors. First, they offer an alternative to ActiveX Documents for presenting legacy documents on the Web. If you have only a few Word or Excel documents that you need to present on the Web, or if your audience is not using a Web browser compatible with ActiveX Documents, the Internet Assistants allow you to convert these documents to HTML. However, if you would rather make use of ActiveX Document technology and present the documents in their original form on the Web, the Internet Assistants can still be of use to you. In addition to their HTML conversion abilities, the Assistants can also add other Web capabilities to the underlying applications. For instance, the Internet Assistants for Microsoft Word and PowerPoint add the ability in those applications to create hypertext links in their respective documents.
Internet Assistant for Microsoft Word can be found on the CD-ROMs
that accompany this book-the latest version can also be found
through the Microsoft Office Web site at http://www.microsoft.com/msoffice/.
At the time of this writing, the most recent version for Microsoft
Word and Windows 95, when used in conjunction with Internet Explorer
3, is version 2.03z and comes in the self-installing file Wdia203z.exe.
To install, copy the file to a temporary directory on your hard
drive, execute it, and follow the instructions.
| ON THE WEB |
http://www.microsoft.com/msoffice/ This is the Web site for information and add-ins for Microsoft's Office applications. Freeware Viewers and Internet Assistants for many of their office programs can be downloaded through this page |
In addition to the capability to export Word files as HTML, the Internet Assistant for Word offers two added Web capabilities. First is the capability to use Microsoft Word as a Web browser. This can be done by selecting View, Web Browse or by clicking the Switch to Web Browse View toolbar button (see Figure 51.5).
Figure 51.5 : Internet Assistant for Word allows you to add hypertext links to Word documents.
The other very important capability added to Microsoft Word by its Internet Assistant is the capability to add hypertext links to Word documents. To do so, select a region of text from the document, or any other Word object, and select Insert, Hyperlink. The dialog box shown in Figure 51.5 appears and allows you to add the URL of a local file or Internet document and assign it to that hypertext link. After the link is inserted into the document, the anchor to which it is attached appears blue and underlined (see Figure 51.6).
If this document is exported as HTML, the hypertext link is created as expected. Additionally, the hypertext link can be followed, either in Microsoft Word, or when viewed in the Word Viewer (see the "Word Viewer" section later in this chapter).
The Internet Assistant for Microsoft Excel adds the capability to output a section of an Excel spreadsheet as an HTML table. You can install the add-in file for the Internet Assistant, Html.xla, after copying it from the CD-ROMs or downloading it from the Microsoft Office Web site, by following these steps:
Using the Internet Assistant Wizard to export all or a portion of your Excel spreadsheet to an HTML file is very simple. Simply select Tools, Internet Assistant Wizard and follow its instructions. It gives you the opportunity to select the region you wish to export, choose to export it as a complete HTML document or to an existing HTML document, and gives you the option of exporting just the data or as much of the formatting (such as table colors) as possible. If you are exporting it as a complete HTML document, the Wizard allows you to pick the name of the HTML document and add some other formatting (such as title, heading, and trailer information).
Figure 51.7 shows the Cteu.xls spreadsheet viewed in Figure 51.3 as an HTML file. As you can see from this file, the Internet Assistant for Excel isn't perfect-empty spreadsheet cells appear filled in, and two of the columns in the COMP TIME USED section of the spreadsheet appear very thin because all of the cells in those columns are empty. Nevertheless, with a little tweaking of the HTML document, those flaws can be corrected. The Internet Assistant for Excel makes it very easy to export Excel spreadsheets as HTML.
Figure 51.7 : Internet Assistant for Excel allows Excel spreadsheets to be exported as HTML.
Microsoft provides Internet Assistants for some of their other Office applications. Like the Internet Assistant for Excel, those for Access and Schedule+ allow documents in those applications to be exported as HTML.
The Internet Assistant for Microsoft PowerPoint can create a series of Web pages from a PowerPoint presentation. The capabilities of this Internet Assistant are described in the "PowerPoint Animation Player for ActiveX" section later in this chapter, as the Internet Assistant and Animation Player add complementary capabilities to Microsoft PowerPoint.
To provide the capability for people who do not have their Office application to view documents created with them and to give capability to view ActiveX Documents without launching the full application, Microsoft has created freeware Viewers for its most popular Office suite applications. For a content provider interested in serving Word, Excel, or PowerPoint documents, these viewers increase the audience of people who are able to view them.
Microsoft's Viewers for Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint are available on the CD-ROMs that come with this book and can also be found through the Microsoft Office Web site at http://www.microsoft.com/msoffice/.
As with all of Microsoft's document viewers, when installed, you are given the option to make the viewer your default application for documents of that type. For the Word Viewer, this means that double-clicking a Word document, or following a hypertext link to an ActiveX Word Document, launches the Word Viewer inline within the Web browser window, rather than Microsoft Word. Doing this doesn't allow the document to be edited, but, as a smaller application, it loads faster. Also, for ActiveX Documents accessed from the Web, a copy of the file can be saved locally and edited with Microsoft Word later (or Word can be launched immediately to edit the file by selecting File, Open File for Editing, or clicking the Open for Editing toolbar button within the Word Viewer).
Whether used stand-alone or within a Web browser to view an ActiveX Word Document, the Word Viewer provides support for hypertext links created within Word documents using Word's Internet Assistant (see Figure 51.8). Clicking the hypertext link, if viewing an ActiveX Document, causes the Web browser to follow that link and load the document found there. If used stand-alone, clicking the link launches your default application for that file type (your Web browser for a Web URL) and loads the resulting document.
Like the Word Viewer, the Excel Viewer, shown in Figure 51.9, can be used either stand-alone or within a Web browser to view local Excel files and ActiveX Excel Documents. The spreadsheet displayed provides the full data and formatting of the Excel spreadsheet, though the data cannot be changed nor the formulas seen. Excel can be launched to edit the spreadsheet by selecting File, Open for Editing, or clicking the Open for Editing toolbar button.
The PowerPoint Viewer can be used to view PowerPoint animations, either by itself or within a Web browser to view an ActiveX PowerPoint document. A much more exciting way of presenting and viewing PowerPoint presentations over the Web, however, is given by the PowerPoint Animation Player for ActiveX, discussed in the next section.
The PowerPoint Animation Player for ActiveX adds PowerPoint presentation
publishing and viewing capabilities to PowerPoint and Internet
Explorer. The Animation Player comes in the self-installing file
Axpub.exe, available on the CD-ROMs and through the Animation
Player Web.
| ON THE WEB |
http://www.microsoft.com/mspowerpoint/internet/player/ This site hosts Microsoft's PowerPoint Animation Publisher and Player ActiveX Controls and gives you access to a PowerPoint Gallery of third-party Web sites using these products |
When installed, the Animation Player adds Web publishing capabilities to PowerPoint, allowing it to export animated, multimedia presentations that have been compressed especially for Web viewing. When used in conjunction with the PowerPoint Internet Assistant, which creates Web slide shows out of PowerPoint presentations that can be viewed with any Web browser that supports GIF or JPEG graphics (and even create a version for text-only browsers), you can reach the widest possible audience.
Creating animated PowerPoint presentations for the Web from a PowerPoint presentation is not very difficult. The full array of PowerPoint tools for creating a set of slides, including the array of format and content templates provided, the text and inter-slide animation effects, and the capability to attach other animations and sounds to the presentation, are available.
It is also possible to attach hypertext links to PowerPoint objects. This is done by following these steps:
Because the PowerPoint Animation Player supports all of the animation and sound capabilities of PowerPoint, you can also configure your presentation for these effects. While viewing the appropriate slide (or with the slide or slides selected in the View, Slide Sorter view), select Tools, Build Slide Text to determine how the text on each slide is animated when it appears. Select Tools, Slide Transition to configure how the transitions from one slide to the next is done (see Figure 51.11). In the Slide Transition dialog box, the visual and audio slide transition effects can be selected, as well as the slide advance setting (either manually by the user or automatically timed).
| TIP |
To make sure your automatically advancing presentation stops at the end, make sure the last slide is set to Advance Only on Mouse Click |
As you create your presentation, select View, Slide Show to see if you are satisfied with it. When you are, it can be exported for Web viewing by selecting File, Export for Internet and picking As HTML, As PowerPoint Animation, or As Both. By selecting As Both, you create both a PowerPoint animation and HTML slide show, assuring the widest possible audience.
If exporting as a PowerPoint Animation, you are asked for a file name to give to the animation file (the default extension for PowerPoint Animations is .Ppz). If exporting as HTML, you are asked for a subdirectory name into which to write the HTML and graphics files for each slide. You also are provided the option to select, through the HTML Export Options dialog box shown in Figure 51.12, Grayscale or Color, J_PEG or GIF, and the image quality and size of JPEG images.
The PowerPoint Animation file and HTML and image files for your presentation are then created. A skeleton HTML file similar to the one shown in Listing 51.1 is also created, which gives access to both the animation file (which is played embedded in the Web page if the Animation Player is present on the viewing system), and HTML slide show.
Listing 51.1 Writanon.htm Skeleton HTML File Generated by PowerPoint Animation Publisher
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Untitled</TITLE>
<META NAME="GENERATOR" CONTENT="Microsoft PowerPoint Animation Publisher 1.0">
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<CENTER>
<OBJECT CLASSID="clsid:EFBD14F0-6BFB-11CF-9177-00805F8813FF"
WIDTH=600
HEIGHT=450>
<PARAM NAME="File" VALUE="Writanon.ppz">
<EMBED WIDTH=600 HEIGHT=450 SRC="Writanon.ppz"></EMBED>
<NOEMBED>This page contains a Microsoft PowerPoint Animation that your browser
was unable to view.
<A HREF="Writanon.ppz">Click here to open Writanon.ppz fullscreen</A>
</NOEMBED>
</OBJECT>
</CENTER>
<! Note: Both "PPZ" and "PPT" files are supported.>
<BR>
<A HREF="Writanon.ppz">Click here to view Writanon.ppz in a larger size</A>
<BR>
If you can't see the animation above, <A HREF="sld001.htm">Click here for a
GIF/JPEG version</A>
<BR>
<HR>
This page contains a Microsoft PowerPoint Animation. If you can't see it,
<A HREF="http://www.microsoft.com/mspowerpoint/">download</A> Microsoft
PowerPoint Animation Player today and learn how <B>YOU</B> can create
multimedia for the Web!
</BODY>
</HTML>
| TIP |
When creating a PowerPoint Animation for the Internet, don't forget to save the presentation in normal PowerPoint format, too! PowerPoint can't open .Ppz files |
An example PowerPoint Animation and corresponding HTML slide show are included on the CD-ROMs (the top-level HTML file is Writanon.htm), to give you an idea of the differences between the two. In general, animations are much more exciting and interesting, while the HTML slide shows are supported by far more Web browsers. With the PowerPoint Animation Player, you can maximize your audience by providing both.
Figure 51.13 shows the last slide of the sample animated presentation. As shown, the cursor changes to the familiar hand pointer when it passes over the hypertext link that was added to the MAILTO: JOD text object. If this object is clicked, the hypertext link is followed. In this case, it is a mailto link to my e-mail address, so your e-mail program should be launched.
The HTML slide show, on the other hand, isn't quite as dynamic. Figure 51.14 shows the first slide in the slide show. Each slide is a JPEG or GIF graphic, and the buttons at the bottom allow the user to control the advance (or rewind) of the slide show. The A button shown on the Web page allows users to access a text-only version of the slide presentation.
| CAUTION |
Be careful when creating PowerPoint presentations that you want to export to the Web. If you include too many external graphics or sounds, PowerPoint has a reputation for creating very large animation files from them. If you are able to limit yourself to the built-in PowerPoint text and animation effects, though, the file size will be kept to a reasonable level |
To see some stunning examples of PowerPoint Animations over the Web, go to the PowerPoint Animations Gallery available through the Animation Player Web site at http://www.microsoft.com/mspowerpoint/internet/player/.
Using ActiveX Documents doesn't require using Microsoft's Internet
Explorer 3 Web browser. NCompass Labs has developed plug-ins for
Netscape Navigator that allow it to make use of ActiveX technology.
The DocActive plug-in gives Navigator access to ActiveX Documents.
The functionality of the DocActive plug-in, plus support for ActiveX
Scripting and ActiveX Controls, is included in their ScriptActive
plug-in, available on this book's CD-ROMs and through the NCompass
Labs Web site. The plug-in is easily installed by executing the
self-installing file Ncpro3.exe.
| ON THE WEB |
http://www.ncompass.labs/ This site is the home of Ncompass Labs, whose plug-ins for Netscape Navigator allow it to make use of Microsoft's ActiveX Technologies |
With the DocActive or ScriptActive plug-ins installed, Netscape Navigator is also capable of using a compatible application to view a document inline within the Web browser window. Figure 51.15 shows Microsoft Word being used by Navigator to view a local Word document.
Unlike Internet Explorer, when Navigator loads an application to view an ActiveX Document, it does not merge the application menu bar with its own. Instead, the applications menus are put into a drop-down menu on the left side of the application title bar (see Figure 51.15). All of the menus and menu options of the application are still available, they're just organized a little differently.
While ActiveX Documents make it easier to collaborate over the Internet or corporate intranets, allowing two or more people to work on documents for supported applications such as Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, they are not a true collaboration tool. ActiveX Documents allow serial collaboration; only one person at a time can work on a given document, and the other people on the project have no visibility into this process while it is happening (unless they happen to be in the same room, which isn't quite in the spirit of Internet collaboration). And though ActiveX Documents can be read inline very easily with a compatible Web browser, once edited they cannot be saved directly to a central repository through the Web browser.
Microsoft has created another freeware software tool that does support true collaboration over the Internet, called Microsoft NetMeeting. The types of collaboration supported by NetMeeting versus ActiveX Documents are very different and should be understood so that content providers interested in creating a collaborative environment can do so in the appropriate manner.
Microsoft NetMeeting is included with the full install of Internet Explorer 3 and can also be downloaded from the NetMeeting Web site at http://www.microsoft.com/netmeeting/. It comes in two versions, a stand-alone version and one that requires Internet Explorer 3 (both require Windows 95). Both versions actually can be run alone, but the stand-alone version is larger because it includes some necessary files that are otherwise included with Internet Explorer 3. You can download the self-installing file of whichever version is appropriate through the Web site above and install by executing that file and following the directions.
True collaboration over the Internet requires an application such as Microsoft NetMeeting. Using NetMeeting, two or more people can connect over the Internet, actually speak to and be heard by one another, and exchange thoughts and ideas simultaneously using a chat window and whiteboard. The most amazing capability of NetMeeting is the ability to share applications. For instance, one participant in a NetMeeting conference can launch Microsoft Word to work on a document; if he or she configures NetMeeting to share that application, then other participants in the conference can take control of the application and edit it while each of the others watch what is being done.
Figure 52.16 shows several ways that Microsoft NetMeeting allows you to interact over the Internet. The NetMeeting window, the active window in the figure, is where you can place calls to other NetMeeting users and has the configuration and other menus that are used to control the application. The Chat window is where two or more users connected in an Internet conference can chat with one another in real time. The Whiteboard window is a Paint-based program that the people in conference can simultaneously work in.
The primary purpose of ActiveX Documents is the capability to
provide content from Office suite and other applications over
the Web. Because the applications themselves are launched and
used within the Web browser window, the user has the added ability
to edit and manipulate such files. Because of this, it makes it
easier for multiple people to access and manipulate documents
from these applications over the Web. The multiple-step process
of transferring a file via FTP and then launching the appropriate
application to edit the file, becomes a one-step process transparent
to the user via ActiveX Documents.
| How Do I Use ActiveX Documents for Web Collaboration? |
There are at least two models of project collaboration that would lend themselves quite well to the use of ActiveX Documents. The first is a "bottom-up" organization where the information flow for a project is normally in one direction. For instance, two or three employees may be doing research for a sales or marketing plan, producing Excel spreadsheets and Word reports to document their findings. These documents could be made available via the Web to another employee charged with collating this information and producing a PowerPoint presentation from it Another collaboration paradigm that lends itself to the serial collaboration possible using ActiveX Documents is a case where a document is being produced by multiple people, who don't need to see the work of the others as it happens-multiple authors collaborating on a book and reviewers studying scholarly papers, for instance. In this case, the document can be accessed and edited one at a time, and then provided to the next person in line. |
ActiveX Documents can be used to ease the task of collaboration over the Internet, but because users cannot edit and save ActiveX Documents at their source, it is more of a one-way form of collaboration. The primary use and benefit for most content providers of ActiveX Documents, however, is the ability to provide documents in many different applications via the Web and have them presented in their original form.
Similar to the application-sharing capabilities of Microsoft NetMeeting,
the WinFrame Web Client ActiveX Control from Citrix can offer
another exciting way for information providers to make available
documents and information from arbitrary applications, regardless
of whether their users have those applications or not. Through
the WinFrame Web Client, available in the self-installing file
Citrix.exe on the CD-ROMs or through the Citrix Web site, users
can connect to computers running WinFrame server software and
actually run applications remotely. (Information about Citrix's
WinFrame server software is also available through their Web site.)
| ON THE WEB |
http://www.citrix.com/ This Web site describes Citrix WinFrame technology for sharing information and applications over the Web |
Figure 51.17 shows an example of remotely running the Route 66 route-planning software over the Internet. Using this technology, information providers are now able to serve documents in any format, without regard to whether or not their users have compatible software (other than a Web browser and WinFrame Web Client). Not only can their users use the remote application to view this information, but they can actually use the application to edit and manipulate the information, save it to a local file, or even save it back to the remote site (if the file permissions there allow), something not possible with ActiveX Documents.
Figure 51.17 : The Route 66 application is being used remotely through the WinFrame ActiveX Control.