excel ole

Excel: OLE Object

Embedded OLE objects (Word documents, PowerPoint decks, PDFs, Visio diagrams, etc.) stored inside a worksheet. Excel anchors each object to a cell range and always renders it as an icon preview — there is no inline "content" display mode for worksheet OLE.

Path: /{SheetName}/ole[N] (1-based, per sheet)

Aliases accepted in selectors and --type: ole, oleobject, object, embed, embeddedobject.

Operations

• add - Embed an OLE object
• set - Replace source, refresh ProgID, resize, or re-anchor
• get - Read OLE object properties and optionally extract the embedded binary
• query - Find OLE objects by selector
• remove - Not supported yet (use raw-set or re-create the sheet)

set

Path: /{SheetName}/ole[N]

Property	Accepted Values	Description
src / path	file path	Replace the embedded payload. ProgID is auto-refreshed from the new extension unless progId is also set in the same call. Old part is deleted to avoid bloat.
progId	valid ProgID	Override the OLE ProgID (e.g. Word.Document.12, Excel.Sheet.12, Package).
width	unit-qualified (6cm, 2in, 160pt) or integer cell count	Resize horizontally. Sub-cell remainder is preserved in the to-marker ColumnOffset for round-trip fidelity.
height	unit-qualified or integer cell count	Resize vertically (to-marker RowOffset carries the sub-cell remainder).
anchor	cell range (B2:E6) or single cell (B2)	Re-anchor the object. width/height in the same call are ignored with a stderr warning (anchor defines the full rectangle).

Not supported (throws ArgumentException):

• display — Excel always shows OLE objects as icons (no DrawAspect concept).
• name — SpreadsheetML x:oleObject has no Name attribute in the schema.

Examples

# Replace the embedded Word document with a new one (progId auto-refreshes)
officecli set book.xlsx /Sheet1/ole[1] --prop src=updated-memo.docx

# Resize existing object
officecli set book.xlsx /Sheet1/ole[1] --prop width=8cm --prop height=5cm

# Re-anchor to a different cell range
officecli set book.xlsx /Sheet1/ole[1] --prop anchor=D4:H10

# Pin an explicit ProgID
officecli set book.xlsx /Sheet1/ole[1] --prop progId=Package

get Attributes

Canonical Format schema (shared with Word/PPT OLE where applicable):

Attribute	Type	Description
objectType	string	Always ole
progId	string	OLE ProgID (e.g. Word.Document.12, Excel.Sheet.12, Package)
display	string	Always icon for Excel (schema symmetry with Word/PPT; Excel has no content mode)
contentType	string	MIME type of the embedded payload
fileSize	number	Size of embedded binary (bytes)
width	string	Display width (unit-qualified, e.g. 6cm)
height	string	Display height (unit-qualified)
anchor	string	Cell-range form of the object's rectangle (e.g. B2:E6) — round-trips directly to set anchor=...
shapeId	number	Legacy VML shape ID (1025-based, unique per sheet)
relId	string	Relationship ID of the embedded part
previewImage	string	Path to extracted preview image when available (auto-converted EMF/WMF → PNG)
previewContentType	string	Preview image MIME type

Extract embedded binary

# Read properties
officecli get book.xlsx /Sheet1/ole[1]

# Extract the embedded payload to disk
officecli get book.xlsx /Sheet1/ole[1] --save extracted.docx

--save adds savedTo (path) and savedBytes (size) to the standard attributes.

query

# Find all OLE objects across every sheet
officecli query book.xlsx "ole"
officecli query book.xlsx "object"
officecli query book.xlsx "embed"

# Scope to one sheet
officecli query book.xlsx "Sheet1!ole"

# Filter by ProgID (exact or contains)
officecli query book.xlsx 'ole[progId=Excel.Sheet.12]'
officecli query book.xlsx 'ole[progId~=Word]'

# Filter by size
officecli query book.xlsx 'ole[fileSize>10000]'

view Output

OLE object count appears in view outline per sheet when present, alongside charts/pivot tables/etc. Preview images for OLE objects are surfaced via the previewImage attribute in get.

Notes

• No remove yet — Excel OLE remove is not wired into ExcelHandler.Mutations. Work around with raw-set or rebuild the sheet.
• Orphan parts are not indexed — embedded parts without a matching x:oleObject element are intentionally hidden from ole[N] so get/set stay in lockstep. Use validate or raw package inspection to audit them.
• ProgID auto-detection from the source file extension (.docx → Word.Document.12, .xlsx → Excel.Sheet.12, .pptx → PowerPoint.Show.12, .pdf/unknown → Package).
• ProgID validation: ≤39 chars, no leading digit, valid COM characters — see OleHelper.ValidateProgId.
• Legacy VML shape placeholder is also created for schema compliance; Office 2010+ renders from objectPr/anchor and ignores the VML fallback.
• Resident mode (officecli open) supports add/set/get --save for OLE.

See Also

• Picture - Regular image elements
• Add Excel - Full add syntax with examples
• Excel Reference - All Excel elements
• Word OLE, PowerPoint OLE - Cross-format reference

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Based on OfficeCLI v1.0.64