What is a Compound Document in Microsoft Office?
In Microsoft Office, you can write documents, design spreadsheets and create presentations. You can also stick a spreadsheet into your presentation, put a presentation into your document, and even dump a document into your spreadsheet. Whether adding "live" data from an external source, or just adding a photo, the combined result is known as a "compound document"
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Origins
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Compound documents date back to the first demonstration of a Xerox Star workstation in 1981. Featured in the demonstration was a document that could display information from different sources in a sensible way, even with the ability to access those sources directly. That demonstration was fully twelve years before the introduction of HTML and the World Wide Web as we know it.
Definition
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In basic terms, a "compound document" is any electronic file that can functionally combine different sources of information into a single document. A web page is a "simple" compound document, combining different types of information---text, images, sounds and video---and viewing them as a single piece. More advanced forms include real-time updates to the information as well as the ability to access and modify information sources directly.
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Misconceptions
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A compound document can be compared to web pages, in that they combine different sources of information into a single page on the browser application. The definition of a compound document reaches further than that, such as with "DDE" and "OLE" technologies in Microsoft Office. Those allow users to create a Word document with an "embedded" Excel worksheet, for instance. Not only does that mean users see the current data on the worksheet, but they also have access to modify the worksheet while working within the Word application; a two-way relationship with the "embedded" information.
Significance
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The idea of cross-referencing information sources in a single environment has revolutionized productivity software. A new software category, known as "groupware" has arisen from this concept. With the collaboration potential of the Internet, it is possible to efficiently work through compound documents linking to information sources from opposite ends of the world.
Microsoft Office Compound Document Types
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Microsoft Word documents are often considered the "compound document" format. In truth, any Microsoft Office document-type is potentially a compound document; once data from a different source is imported.
Controversy
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Microsoft has received much criticism regarding their apparent sabotage of any interoperability with third-party or open-source platforms; regarding compound-document formats and "groupware" technologies in particular. Microsoft denied such allegations and later responded by submitting the controversial "Office Open XML" or "OOXML" file-format as an international standard---including distinct support for compound documents, especially within the Microsoft Office framework---that was later accepted in April of 2008.
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