Everybody likes to add pictures to their documents (sometimes to their detriment, but that’s a different article). However, the file sizes on these pictures can add up, and before you know it your 10 page document is 10 MB (megabytes). This causes problems not only for you, but for your audience as well. One example of this occurs with emailing the documents. Many times documents are emailed to their intended audience. Unfortunately, a document of that size could cause problems with their email systems.

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One of the more common things I’ve seen done with Microsoft Visio is to create something in it (such as a flowchart, graph, or diagram) and then embed this creation into a Microsoft Word document. A good example of this occurs when creating a software design document. It’s pretty standard to include both a written description of how the software should work, as well as a visual flowchart of how software should work. Visio is the tool of choice for creating this flowchart. However, once this flowchart is created in Visio, what is the best way to include it in your document?

There are multiple ways to include your Visio object into a document. I’m going to go over two of the ones I’ve seen most commonly used:

• Copying the Visio contents into the document.
• Inserting the Visio contents as an object icon.

Copying the Visio contents

This is the method that I use the most, as it is both quick and easy. To do this, simply select the parts of your Visio project that you want to include in your document and then paste your selection into the document. Need a simple way to select everything on a Visio page? Simply use CTRL+A. This will select everything in the current window.

Once you have pasted your selection into the document, you can size the Visio object to fit your needs using the sizing handles. I like to use this method because it’s easy to perform inline edits. For example, say that you are revising a design document that was created a long time ago. It’s more than likely that you don’t have access to the original Visio object. However, you can edit the embedded object. To do so, follow the steps below:

1. Right click on the object.
2. Select Visio Object.
3. Select Open.

Visio will then open, and you’ll be able to perform any changes you want to the object. To save your changes, select Update from the File menu. Also, if you want to save the object from your document into a separate Visio file, you can go to the File menu and select Save Copy As….

*Note: Instead of selecting Open from the Visio Object menu, you can select Edit. This will open the embedded object for inline editing in Word. However, I find this hard to use, so I recommend that you use the method described above.

Inserting the Visio contents as an object icon

This is a good option if you need to attach your Visio object to the document as a reference or appendix. Including an icon instead of the entire diagram can cut multiple pages from your document.

All you have to do to insert your Visio object this way is follow these steps:

1. Go to theInsert menu.
2. Select Object.

A dialog box will then appear. For our purposes, we will be using the Create from File tab. Browse to the location of your Visio file to select it. Then, click on the Display as icon checkbox. This will enable the Change Icon button. You can use this to change the caption and picture for your icon. Once you’ve finished, click Ok and your object will show up as an icon in your document.

*Note: If you enable the Link to file checkbox, any changes made to your source file will cause the object in the document to be updated.

Important drawback to this method: If you choose this route, your audience will need to have Visio installed on their computer to be able to read it. It’s for this reason that I don’t use this method very much. Visio is not a common Microsoft Office install, so you’ll have to make the call on whether or not your audience will have access to it.

Embedding Visio objects is relatively simple, you should decide which way to do it based on who your audience is and what you are trying to accomplish by using your Visio object.

This is a question that I get more often than you might think:  How do you embed a document, such as a Microsoft Word document, into a field in a table in Microsoft Access?  It may seem like the answer to this would be complicated, however it actually is quite a simple process.

To begin, let’s define what you will actually be embedding.  You will be embedding what is called an OLE Object.  OLE stands for “Object Linking and Embedding”.  It is a standard created by Microsoft that allows you to create an object in one application (say a Microsoft Word document) and embed or link it into another application (such as Microsoft Access).  For a slightly more detailed definition from Webopedia, click here.   In our example, I will be using a Microsoft Word document.

First, go to your table in Design View.  You can do this by following steps 1-3 shown below:

1. Click on Tables.
2. Highlight your table.
3. Click on Design View.

You should see a screen like this come up:

 

This table has two fields.  One is the ID field, which is just an auto-number to be our primary key.  The other field is the test field.  This is where we will be embedding our object.  It has been defaulted to Data Type “Text”.  Change this to “OLE Object”.  Close the table and save the changes to it.

Now, let’s embed a Microsoft Word document into a sample row.  Open the table by double clicking on it. You should get a screen like this:

Right click on the empty test field of the first row.  Select Insert Object from the menu.  The following menu will appear:

Here are your options:

1. Create New - You can pick an object to create from the list box and create an empty object of that type into the test field.  You can then double click on that field and that object will open up in the native application.  For example, a Microsoft Word document will open up in Microsoft Word.  You can then save changes and it will be stored in the database. *Note: be careful, if you just close a document while it is open it will save, make sure to undo your changes before closing if you don’t want them to be saved.
2. Create from File - You can copy an existing object into the database, and then edit that copy in the database (like for a new object) without affecting the original object.  If you choose to link it (there is a “Link” checkbox for this option), the original object will be changed when you edit it in the database and vica-versa.

Choose either an existing Microsoft Word document or create a new one and click “Ok”, and there you have it.  Try editing the document for yourself and see the results.  Also, play around with the options a bit, this tutorial is just a quick way to get started with embedding objects. There are also multiple different options for using this in Forms, depending the purpose of your application.