Marvin OLE is the ChemAxon solution for Microsoft's Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) technology. It is supported by Windows operating systems. Marvin OLE offers an easy way to embed Marvin Sketch drawings into other applications, like Microsoft Office Family products. Embedded Marvin Documents can be edited in-place with a fully functional Marvin Sketch.
Word Documents, Excel Sheets, and many more other files containing embedded Marvin Documents are easily distributable. Even people who do not have Marvin installed can access the content as an image, however, to edit the Marvin Document itself, they must have a properly installed Marvin with OLE support.
To be able to install or uninstall OLE server, you need administrator privileges. Below, you can see how to do it (if you have got the required rights). The OLE server is connecting closer to the Marvin Beans resources. When you register a Marvin OLE server it stores a reference in the Windows registry about the location of MarvinSketch application (that will be launched when you edit an embedded Marvin Document).
The OLE server can register only that MarvinSketch which is
in the same install package than itself.
If Marvin Beans package is not available, it is possible to
install OLE server (and required Marvin resources) from
Marvin Java Web Start (requires to run jnlp with administrator
privileges).
Installation is automatically handled by Marvin Installer. In any case you can not use the installer application provided, you can use Marvin (Edit/Preferences/OLEServer menu) to manage OLE Server. For command-line operations, you have to execute marvinoleserver.exe once at your
X:\YourMarvinDirectory\lib\folder to access this functionality.
Uninstalling Marvin will remove the Marvin OLE support from your machine as well. You can completely disable this feature while having your installed Marvin untouched at Edit/Preferences/OLEServer menu, or by executing
X:\YourMarvinDirectory\lib\marvinoleserver.exe /unregisterTo re-enable the feature, just execute marvinoleserver.exe without any parameters as described in installation section above (or control it via the Edit/Preferences OLEServer menu). (It is not necessary to reinstall Marvin, if you had not uninstalled it)
Note: 'X:\YourmarvinDirectory' is 'C:\Program Files\Marvin Beans' if you have chosen installing Marvin into 'C:\Program Files\Marvin Beans'
Windows 2000/XP: Most users have got administrator privileges in default (unless system administrator restrict it). If you have got full control on your machine (install anything freely), you are administrator rights. In this case, you can register/unregister OLE server yourself and Marvin Beans installer/uninstallers will run definitly with admin privileges.
Windows Vista Vista security policy is more strict than earlier Windows versions. If a user has got administrator rights, it
does not mean that he can run everything with these
privileges. In default, all programs runs without extra rigths.
To run a program with administrator privileges, you have to
select Run As Administrator by launching
(take a right click on the icon of the application and choose
Run As Administrator option). After selecting
this option, Vista will ask a confirmation to run the application
with high privileges. Answer with Allow to this
question. After then, the application will run in admin mode.
Note: Although Marvin Beans installer/uninstaller does not
require admin rights, it detects the highest running level and
try to run in administrator mode, automatically (if it possible). If the
installer has got the proper rights, does registration/unregistration of OLE server in the background during the (un)installation process.
Marvin OLE is accessible via Windows Clipboard. Make sure you have 'OLE Object' enabled in Edit/Preferences/Copy (by default, this feature is enabled). You can simply select your drawing, or any part of it and use copy to clipboard (ctrl-c) function. The selection can be pasted into any OLE-capable application, like Microsoft Office Family.
This feature also works in a reversed way: Select an embedded Marvin OLE document from your Excel Sheet or Word Document, copy to the clipboard (ctrl-c), then use the paste function (ctrl-v) at your Marvin Sketch to retrive the structure.
Word Pad pops up a dialog indicating Marvin OLE Server is not responding, while inserting a new Marvin Document, or editing an exisiting one with Marvin Sketch. This causes no harm or data loss, it is an invalid error message fired by Word Pad. After you complete the drawing process, and close Marvin Sketch, press 'Retry' to get rid of the dialog.
Microsoft Excel has a refresh bug in some versions including Office 2003 and Office 2007. Pasting a structure from Marvin will display correctly in Excel, but any changes on embedded molecule will not appear in document. Changes are made and saved in structure, only display not refreshes. To fix this issue, you have to save your excel worksheet, and reopen it. There will be no data loss, and re-opened document will refresh the changes after each edit.
Open Office: Although Open Office is not supported, but this OLE solution works partially on that platform. The following issues are known: Copy from Open Office into Marvin does not work; the image of the embedded structure is not refresh after edit unless save the whole office document.