10 Inserting Managed Content Into Microsoft Office Files

This section covers these topics:

• Section 10.1, "About Inserting Managed Content Into Microsoft Office Files"

• Section 10.2, "Inserting Links"

• Section 10.3, "Inserting Files"

• Section 10.4, "Inserting Images"

10.1 About Inserting Managed Content Into Microsoft Office Files

Desktop Integration Suite ties in to the built-in object insertion features of Microsoft Office applications by enabling you to insert items from a content server (Oracle Content Server instances only) into Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents. You can insert links to files on a server, the actual contents of files from a server, or images from a server. The items are always inserted at the current cursor position in the Office document.

The following sections provide more information about inserting managed content:

• Section 10.1.1, "Understanding Inserted Links"

• Section 10.1.2, "Understanding Inserted Files"

• Section 10.1.3, "Understanding Inserted Images"

10.1.1 Understanding Inserted Links

You can insert a hyperlink to a file on a content server (Oracle Content Server instances only) at the current cursor position in a Microsoft Word, Excel, or PowerPoint document. Desktop Integration Suite uses Office's built-in hyperlink insertion features; the only difference is that you can point to a file on a content server rather than a local file.

When inserting a link into an Office document, you can specify three link properties:

• Link Rendition

• Link Text

• Link to Latest Revision

Link Rendition

When inserting a hyperlink, you can point to different items related to a content item:

• Native Rendition: This links to the native file; that is, the original file as created in its associated application (for example, .doc or .docx files for Microsoft Word documents).

• Web-Viewable Rendition: This links to a version of the original file that can be viewed in a web browser. You may manually specify a file as the web-viewable rendition when checking a content item into the content server, but web-viewable renditions are often created automatically on the content server and checked in along with the native file (for example, a generated PDF version).

• HTML Rendition: This links to an HTML version of the original file, as converted on the content server when the file is requested for viewing.

• Content Information Page: This links to the page on the content server that provides metadata information about the content item (title, author, and so on). This page also includes links to the various available renditions of the content item.

• Other renditions: There may be additional, custom renditions available on an Oracle Content Server instance. The default is the alternate file, but server administrators may configure the content server to include other custom renditions of content items in this list.

Link Text

When inserting a hyperlink, you can provide a link text, which is the hyperlinked text that is inserted into the Microsoft Office document. The default is the title of the selected content item (as stored on the content server), but you can modify this as needed. If you provide no text at all, the link text will be the full URL to the selected link target.

Link to Latest Revision

When inserting a hyperlink, you can specify that the link should always point to the latest released revision of the file on the content server. This means that the link target will always be up to date. Otherwise, the hyperlink references a specific revision of the content item, which means it will point to an older revision of the file if that file is updated on the content server.

10.1.2 Understanding Inserted Files

You can insert the contents of a file on a content server (Oracle Content Server instances only) at the current cursor position in a Microsoft Word, Excel, or PowerPoint document. Desktop Integration Suite uses Office's built-in file insertion features; the only difference is that you can insert the contents of a file on a content server rather than a local file.

The file contents are inserted statically; that is, there is no dynamic link between the file contents in the Office document and the source file on the content server. This means that the document is not updated automatically if the source file is updated on the content server, or vice versa.

Whether a file can be inserted into the Office document and how this happens depends on the file format, the current Office application, and the general Office configuration (for example, the installed conversion filters). For example, the contents of Word documents are inserted directly into other Word documents, but they are inserted as embedded Word objects in Excel spreadsheets. Files from a content server are inserted in exactly the same way as local files on your computer.

Note: You cannot insert a sealed document (as managed by Oracle Information Rights Management, or Oracle IRM) into an unsealed document.

File Rendition

When inserting the contents of a file from a content server, you can specify the file rendition that should be inserted:

• Native Rendition: This links to the native file; that is, the original file as created in its associated application (for example, .doc or .docx files for Microsoft Word documents).

• Web-Viewable Rendition: This links to a version of the original file that can be viewed in a web browser. You may manually specify a file as the web-viewable rendition when checking a content item into the content server, but web-viewable renditions are often created automatically on the content server and checked in along with the native file (for example, a generated PDF version).

• Other renditions: There may be additional, custom renditions available on an Oracle Content Server instance. The default is the alternate file, but server administrators may configure the content server to include other custom renditions of content items in this list.

10.1.3 Understanding Inserted Images

You can insert an image file on a content server (Oracle Content Server instances only) at the current cursor position in a Microsoft Word, Excel, or PowerPoint document. Desktop Integration Suite uses Office's built-in file insertion features; the only difference is that you can insert an image from a content server rather than a local file.

The inserted image is not linked to its content item on the server. This means that the image in the document is not updated automatically if the source image is updated on the content server, or vice versa.

Whether an image can be inserted into the Office document and how this happens depends on the image file format, the current Office application, and the general Office configuration (for example, the installed conversion filters). Images from a content server are inserted in exactly the same way as local files on your computer. If you select a non-graphic file (for example, a Word document), the Office application will attempt to convert it to a graphic. If this fails, an error is reported and nothing is inserted.

When inserting an image from a content server into an Office document, you can specify two properties:

• Image Rendition

• Alternative Text

Image Rendition

When inserting an image, you can specify the file rendition that should be inserted:

• Native Rendition: This links to the native file; that is, the original file as created in its associated application. If you select this rendition, make sure that it is a graphic file (for example, BMP, TIFF, GIF, or JPG).

• Web-Viewable Rendition: This links to a version of the original file that can be viewed in a web browser. You may manually specify a file as the web-viewable rendition when checking a content item into the content server, but web-viewable renditions are often created automatically on the content server and checked in along with the native file (for example, a low-resolution JPG version or reduced GIF thumbnail).

• Other renditions: There may be additional, custom renditions available on an Oracle Content Server instance. The default is the alternate file, but server administrators may configure the content server to include other custom renditions of content items in this list.

Alternative Text

When inserting an image, you can specify the alternative text for the image, which is the text that appears when you hover the mouse cursor over the image in a web environment (that is, the text for the ALT attribute of the IMG tag). The default is the title of the selected content item (as stored on the content server), but you can modify this as needed.

10.2 Inserting Links

Perform these steps to insert a hyperlink to an item on a content server into an Office document:

1. Move the cursor to the position in the Office document where you want to insert the hyperlink.

2. Microsoft Office XP (2002) or 2003: On the Oracle UCM menu, choose Insert....

   Microsoft Office 2007 or 2010: On the Oracle UCM ribbon, choose Insert on the Insert panel.

   The Insert Content Item dialog is displayed (see Section A.18, "Insert Content Item Dialog").

3. Open the Link panel.

4. Click Browse to open the Select Content dialog, where you can locate and select the file on the content server that you want to link to. Please note that the list of available servers includes only Oracle Content Server instances, not Oracle Content Database or other WebDAV servers. See Section A.9, "Select Content Dialog" for more information.

   After you have selected a file, the Content Item field in the Insert Content Item dialog shows the content ID of the selected file.

5. Provide the link text for the hyperlink that will be inserted in the Office document. The default is the title of the selected content item (as stored on the content server), but you can modify this as needed. If you provide no text at all, the link text will be the full URL to the selected link target.

6. Select the file rendition that the hyperlink should point to:

   • Native Rendition

   • Web-Viewable Rendition

   • HTML Rendition

   • Content Information Page

   For more information, see Section 10.1.1, "Understanding Inserted Links."

7. Specify whether the hyperlink should always point to the latest revision. If you select the check box, the link target will always be up to date. Otherwise, the hyperlink references a specific revision of the content item, which means it will point to an older revision of the file if that file is updated on the content server.

8. Click OK to insert the hyperlink into the Office document.

10.3 Inserting Files

Perform these steps to insert the contents of a file on a content server into an Office document:

1. Move the cursor to the position in the Office document where you want to insert the file.

2. Microsoft Office XP (2002) or 2003: On the Oracle UCM menu, choose Insert....

   Microsoft Office 2007 or 2010: On the Oracle UCM ribbon, choose Insert on the Insert panel.

   The Insert Content Item dialog is displayed (see Section A.18, "Insert Content Item Dialog").

3. Open the File panel.

4. Click Browse to open the Select Content dialog, where you can locate and select the file on the content server whose contents you want to insert. Please note that the list of available servers includes only Oracle Content Server instances, not Oracle Content Database or other WebDAV servers. For more information, see Section A.9, "Select Content Dialog."

   After you have selected a file, the Content Item field in the Insert Content Item dialog shows the content ID of the selected file.

5. Select the file rendition whose contents you want to insert:

   • Native Rendition

   • Web-Viewable Rendition

   For more information, see Section 10.1.1, "Understanding Inserted Links."

6. Click OK to insert the contents of the selected file into the Office document.

Note: You cannot insert a sealed document (as managed by Oracle Information Rights Management, or Oracle IRM) into an unsealed document.

10.4 Inserting Images

Perform these steps to insert an image on a content server into an Office document:

1. Move the cursor to the position in the Office document where you want to insert the image.

2. Microsoft Office XP (2002) or 2003: On the Oracle UCM menu, choose Insert....

   Microsoft Office 2007 or 2010: On the Oracle UCM ribbon, choose Insert on the Insert panel.

   The Insert Content Item dialog is displayed (see Section A.18, "Insert Content Item Dialog").

3. Open the Image panel.

4. Click Browse to open the Select Content dialog, where you can locate and select the image on the content server that you want to insert. Please note that the list of available servers includes only Oracle Content Server instances, not Oracle Content Database or other WebDAV servers. For more information, see Section A.9, "Select Content Dialog."

   After you have selected an image file, the Content Item field in the Insert Content Item dialog shows the content ID of the selected file.

5. Specify the alternative text for the image, which is the text that appears when you hover the mouse cursor over the image in a web environment (that is, the text for the ALT attribute of the IMG tag). The default is the title of the selected content item (as stored on the content server).

6. Select the file rendition whose contents you want to insert:

   • Native Rendition

   • Web-Viewable Rendition

   For more information, see Section 10.1.1, "Understanding Inserted Links."

7. Click OK to insert the selected image file into the Office document.