# Compound document

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{{Short description|Electronic document format}}
{{about|compound documents in general|the W3C standard|Compound Document Format||6=}}
{{refimprove|date=November 2015}}
In [computing](/source/computing), a '''compound document''' is a [document](/source/Electronic_document) that "combines multiple [document formats](/source/Document_format), either by reference, by inclusion, or both."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Wiggins |first1=Bob |title=Effective Document and Data Management |date=2012 |publisher=Gower Publishing Limited |location=Burlington, VT |isbn=978-1-4094-2328-7 |page=1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tyK8aGavlvQC&q=compound%20document |access-date=Dec 18, 2020}}</ref><ref>[https://www.w3.org/TR/2010/NOTE-CDR-20100819/#definitions Compound Document by Reference Framework 1.0]</ref> Compound documents are often produced using [word processing](/source/word_processor) software, and may include text and non-text elements such as [barcode](/source/barcode)s, [spreadsheet](/source/spreadsheet)s, [picture](/source/picture)s, [digital video](/source/digital_video)s, [digital audio](/source/digital_audio), and other [multimedia](/source/multimedia) features.

The first public implementation of compound documents was on the [Xerox Star](/source/Xerox_Star) [workstation](/source/workstation), released in 1981.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.digibarn.com/collections/systems/xerox-8010/index.html|title = DigiBarn: The Xerox Star 8010 (Dandelion)}}</ref>

Compound document [technologies](/source/technology) are commonly utilized on top of a [software componentry](/source/software_componentry) framework, but the idea of software componentry includes several other concepts apart from compound documents, and software components alone do not enable compound documents. Well-known technologies for compound documents include:
*[ActiveX Document](/source/ActiveX_Document)s
*[Bonobo](/source/Bonobo_(GNOME)) by [Ximian](/source/Ximian) (obsolete, primarily used by [GNOME](/source/GNOME))
*[KParts](/source/KParts) in [KDE](/source/KDE)
*[Mixed Object Document Content Architecture](/source/MODCA)
*[Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions](/source/Multipurpose_Internet_Mail_Extensions) (MIME)
*[Object linking and embedding](/source/Object_linking_and_embedding) (OLE) by [Microsoft](/source/Microsoft); see [Compound File Binary Format](/source/Compound_File_Binary_Format)
*[Open Document Architecture](/source/Open_Document_Architecture) from [ITU-T](/source/ITU-T) (not used)
*[OpenDoc](/source/OpenDoc) by [IBM](/source/IBM) and [Apple Computer](/source/Apple_Computer) (now defunct)
*[RagTime](/source/RagTime)
*Verdantium<ref>{{cite web |title=Verdantium |url=https://sourceforge.net/projects/verdantium |website=sourceforge |date=21 December 2015 |access-date=Dec 18, 2020}}</ref>
*[XML](/source/XML) and [XSL](/source/Extensible_Stylesheet_Language) are encapsulation formats used for compound documents of all kinds

==See also==
* [COM Structured Storage](/source/COM_Structured_Storage)
* [Multiple-document interface](/source/Multiple-document_interface)
* [Transclusion](/source/Transclusion)

==References==
{{Reflist}}

Category:Electronic documents
Category:Multimedia

{{Multimedia-software-stub}}

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Compound document](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compound_document) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compound_document?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.