A set of techniques for incorporating an object from one application in another. An embedded object has no permanent connection with its parent application, but when activated the parent application is launched. For instance an embedded picture in a word processor, when activated, might cause the paint program to appear with the picture loaded, ready to be modified or viewed. When an object is linked into a target application the parent application can be active, and any changes made by the parent application are immediately displayed in the embedded object (see hot link). OLE techniques all differ from a simple copy, where the object has no further connection with the parent application and becomes part of the target.