Working with ActiveX Controls

Microsoft ActiveX controls are Windows-only objects that combine features of COM servers, COM Automation, COM Event interfaces, and ActiveScript hosting. ActiveX controls are self-contained applets or controls which expose their functionality to third-party programmers through COM. Arbortext Editor lets you configure, launch, and use these COM controls to extend Arbortext Editor with tools from a variety of software vendors or through using those controls you create yourself. You can also run Arbortext Editor itself in an ActiveX control.

Using ActiveX controls provide the following benefits:

• Less programming — When using existing controls, developers need only be concerned with writing scripts that handle the communication of data between their XML and the controls. They do not need to design the user interface, develop the user interface, or design the API or properties that hold the data entered by the user.

• Enhanced end-user productivity — Create specialized user interfaces for particular types of documents.

• Simplified complex tagging operations — Create boilerplate sections of documents, set sections to be read-only, create tagging with desired attributes or elements completed, or otherwise control the end-users' interaction with documents.

For details on creating and using ActiveX controls in general, refer to the ActiveX Controls section of Microsoft's MSDN Library. (http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/) and numerous other locations on the World Wide Web. The remainder of this chapter covers configuring and launching ActiveX controls with Arbortext Editor and running Arbortext Editor in an ActiveX control.