Importance

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Abstract

A method for editing an OLE control comprises a user dragging an icon representation of the control and dropping the control onto a form of a container which contains OLE controls, such as Visual Basic. When the user drops the control, the container constructs the control and displays the control in the form. When a user selects the control for an editing transaction the control creates a property page dialog, creates a preview window and displays the control in the preview window. The user makes changes to the control via the property page dialog. The property page dialog invokes a method on the control to display the control with the changes reflected in the preview window so that the user can see the effect of the changes on the control. The display method is an alternate method to the standard display method defined by the interface between the container and the control. Preferably the alternate display method receives additional input parameters which contain information describing the changes. The control's data is not modified and thus the changes are not reflected in the control displayed in the form window until the user applies the changes. The user edits the control as desired in the preview window and applies the changes or cancels the changes. If the user applies the changes, the control's data is updated to reflect the changes. If the user cancels the changes, the preview window and property page dialog are discarded. Thus, an improved container independent method for editing a control, wherein changes may be viewed and evaluated prior to applying the changes to the control is described.

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First Claim