Activating an Object in the OLE Container Control

While the OLE container control's DoVerb method activates an object at run time, you can use the AppIsRunning property to determine whether the application supplying the object is activated and running. You can set AppIsRunning to True to start the ActiveX component, which causes objects to activate more quickly. You can also set this property to False to close the application or take another appropriate action when the object loses focus.

In-Place Activation

Some embedded objects can be edited (activated) from within the OLE container control. This is called in-place activation, because users can double-click an object in your application and interact with application supplying the object, without switching to a different application or window.

For objects that support in-place activation, you can set the AutoActivate property so that users can activate an object at any time. That is, when the OLE container control's AutoActivate property is set to Double-Click, users can double-click the control to activate it. It is important to note that activating an object launches that object's application if it is not already running.

Note   If you want to display the ActiveX component's menus at run time when the user clicks the OLE container control, you must define at least one menu item for the form and set its Visible property to False. This can be an invisible menu if you don't want any menus displayed. See "Creating a User Interface," for more information on displaying an ActiveX component's menus and toolbars in a container application when an object is activated at run time.