Compound documents are those documents that have numerous objects. The objects can range from data or file, video, drawing, letter and audio etc. (Schultheis & Sumner) Compound document files are useful for structuring the content of a document. It enables the user to create different streams of data which can benefit the user for the purpose of storing. These streams can then be stored in various storages within the file. These storages are called sub directories.
The streams are files within a file system which is supported by compound documents (Rentz 3). As far as OLE (Object Linking and Embedding) is concerned, it is a framework developed by Microsoft for the technology of compound document. OLE compound documents ease the users by allowing them to work on a single application in order to manipulate the data of different formats.
This technology has turned out to be advantageous for a common user and software developer. Due to this technology, there is no obligation on the users now to stuff all the feasible elements into a single application. An external Excel spreadsheet linked into a word document is called a compound document as it is developed by using any word processing software.
The regular text document is combined together with non-text components like images, spreadsheets, graphics etc. A web page is also a compound document as it contains a number of different objects. A web page may contain text, pictures, videos, audios, illustrations etc. Thus, Microsoft has given that technology the name of Compound document that makes in-place revision of a document within a different document possible. With OLE, it is better than copying and pasting.
References
Rentz, D. "Microsoft Compound Document File Format." Open Office. Open Office, 7 Aug. 2007. Web. 12 Mar. 2013.
Schultheis, R., and M. Sumner. Management Information Systems: The Manager's View. 4th ed. Delhi: Tata McGraw-Hill, 2008. Web. 12 Mar. 2013.
