OLE 1.0 object

File Format
Name	OLE 1.0 object
Ontology	Electronic File Formats Document OLE 1.0 object
Released	1990

OLE 1.0 object is the main data structure associated with Microsoft's Object Linking and Embedding 1.0 system. It represents an embedded or linked object. The format appears in some Write and Cardfile files, and presumably in various third-party document files from that era.

Format details

The top-level object is one of a few possible types, distinguished by the "FormatID" field:

• FormatID=1 "linked": Contains reference information (such as a filename), and a nested presentation object.
• FormatID=2 "embedded": Contains native data associated with some application, and a nested presentation object.
• FormatID=3 "static": Apparently the same structure as a presentation object (FormatID=5). Apparently not documented in the MS-OLEDS document.

A presentation object can have these types:

• FormatID=0: Empty.
• FormatID=5: Contains an image, or a clipboard object.

Related formats

In addition to the arbitary payload data, these standard formats may be contained in an OLE 1.0 object:

• DIB
• WMF
• DDB
• Windows clipboard

See also

• Microsoft Compound File, a.k.a. OLE2 - Successor format (sort of)

Specifications

• [MS-OLEDS]: Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) Data Structures
  • §2.2: OLE1.0 Format Structures
• Microsoft's documentation of Card File Format includes an outline of the format.

Links

• Wikipedia: Object Linking and Embedding#OLE 1.0