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Editing ChemDraw structures in Word and PowerPoint documents on the Mac produces a server application, source file, or element not found error

Rich Talbot
  • Updated
Date Posted:
Product: ChemDraw

 

Problem:

Trying to edit an embedded ChemDraw object by double clicking on a ChemDraw image in Word or PowerPoint for Mac produces the following error:

Server application, source file, or element not found. Make sure that the application is installed correctly, and that it has not been deleted, moved, or renamed

 

Answer:

Unfortunately, editing structures in ChemDraw by double clicking on an emedded structure in Word or PowerPoint for the Mac is not possible as Microsoft does not support this editing technology on the Macintosh.

OLE is a graphic linking protocol used to edit the embedded structures/objects within Word/PowerPoint in MS Office application for Windows.  In Word/PPT 5.x (for the Mac) and below a similar protocol (EGO) used to edit the embedded objects. However, that technology was removed from Word 6.0 for Mac and Microsoft does not appear to support Macintosh OLE development any longer.

The only way to edit the embedded ChemDraw structures/objects in Word or PowerPoint for Macintosh documents is to copy and paste between Word/PowerPoint and ChemDraw Mac and then back again.

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