Editing OLE Compound Files

FlexHEX is the only hex editor that recognizes and edits OLE compound files. A compound file is a file system in the file or, if you prefer a more exact wording, a file-based implementation of OLE Structured Storage. Like a file system, a compound file contains some kind of directories and files, which are called storages and streams.

Many software applications, most notably Microsoft Office, use compound files for storing data. The screenshot below shows a structure of a typical Microsoft Word file:

It is easy to see that the file contains a number of separate streams for storing the document data, its formatting information, summary and so on. Needless to say, an attempt to edit such a file in a hex editor as a raw binary file will corrupt the structure and render the file invalid. FlexHEX, however, is up to the task!