Get Raw text from embedded OLE

Anybody figure out how to get the raw typed text from an embedded Word or Excel object? That is, if the OLE contains a table that include "45ms" in one of the cells, can I get that out?

-Louie
llandale - Wed Oct 17 10:34:32 EDT 2012

Re: Get Raw text from embedded OLE
David_G_Bond - Fri Oct 19 13:45:24 EDT 2012

The only way I know is to activate the OLE and then use OLE automation to interrogate the document. I provided a response on how to search for text on a previous thread that used this mechanism and the search capabilities of the activated application.

One problem that can happen is multi-level OLE embedding, such as an Excel document in a Word document. I haven't gone through the effort to try to deal with this.

As far as digging into the raw data itself, I tried to decipher the OLE spec once, but didn't have the time or desire to get very far. It was not straight-forward to me, which may say more about my background than its documentation - I'm not knowledgeable enough to make that call.

  • David Bond

Re: Get Raw text from embedded OLE
David_G_Bond - Fri Oct 19 13:49:24 EDT 2012

David_G_Bond - Fri Oct 19 13:45:24 EDT 2012
The only way I know is to activate the OLE and then use OLE automation to interrogate the document. I provided a response on how to search for text on a previous thread that used this mechanism and the search capabilities of the activated application.

One problem that can happen is multi-level OLE embedding, such as an Excel document in a Word document. I haven't gone through the effort to try to deal with this.

As far as digging into the raw data itself, I tried to decipher the OLE spec once, but didn't have the time or desire to get very far. It was not straight-forward to me, which may say more about my background than its documentation - I'm not knowledgeable enough to make that call.

  • David Bond

How to search for a string in an OLE was in this thread: https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/forums/thread.jspa?messageID=14532399&#14532399