On 04/08/2010, at 12:38 PM, Malcolm McCallum wrote: > > > I have been sent an .ocx file which 'pages' has happily opened but when I > send it to my daughter whose computer is on the darkside she cannot open it > :-( > > Where do I go next? > > > Mac > >
While the general suggestion has been made that your .ocx file may be interpreted as a misnamed ".docx" file, this may not necessarily be the case. Taken from <http://www.file-extensions.org/ocx-file-extension>, the following is their explanation of the .ocx file extension: File extension OCX description: An OCX is an Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) custom control, a special-purpose program that can be created for use by applications running on Microsoft's Windows systems. OCXs provide such functions as handling scroll bar movement and window resizing. If you have a Windows system, you'll find a number of files in your Windows directory with the OCX file name suffix. Object Linking and Embedding was designed to support compound documents (which contain multiple information types, such as text, graphic images, sound, motion video). The Windows desktop is an example of a compound document and Microsoft used OLE to build it. OLE and the Component Object Model (COM), a more general concept that succeeded OLE, support the development of "plug-and-play" programs that can be written in any language and used dynamically by any application in the system. These programs are known as components and the application in which they are run is known as a container. This component-based approach to application development reduces development time and improves the program capability and quality. Windows application development programs such as PowerBuilder and Microsoft Access take advantage of OCXs. Microsoft now calls an OCX an ActiveX control, the component object under Microsoft's set of ActiveX technologies, of which the fundamental concept is the Component Object Model (COM) and, in a network, the Distributed Component Object Model (DCOM). An OCX or ActiveX control is actually implemented as a dynamic link library DLL module. (You can think of a DLL program as a "subprogram" that can be used by any number of application programs, each of which is a "container" for the DLL or OCX/ActiveX control "object.") Visual Basic and C++ are commonly used to write OCX or ActiveX controls. Clear as mud? Thought so. The fact that the file opened for you in Pages is probably a happy coincidence. Take Daniel K's suggestion: export it as a Word or PDF file and send that to your daughter. This simply reinforces the fact that the three-character file extension is one of the greatest crimes against the world of computing that Microsoft has committed in its long existence, and there have been plenty of others. The great tragedy is that has forced everyone else, even Apple, to comply purely for compatibility reasons. Peter Hinchliffe Apwin Computer Services FileMaker Pro Solutions Developer Perth, Western Australia Phone (618) 9332 6482 Mob 0403 064 948 -------------------------------------------------------------------- Mac because I prefer it -- Windows because I have to. -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- Archives - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/archives.shtml> Guidelines - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml> Unsubscribe - <mailto:wamug-unsubscr...@wamug.org.au>
