Microsoft's ActiveX uses Microsoft programming tools already familiar to many programmers, such as Visual Basic (for software authoring) and OLE (for interapplication compatibility), to build doodads that then can appear in Web browser windows (specifically, in Internet Explorer windows). ActiveX is used to create many fine games and fancy animation effects, and it's also a gateway into real online collaboration. Using ActiveX, you can make Microsoft Word and Excel documents accessible to an Internet or intranet community so that people can change the content of an online document in real time. A lot of what can be done in Shockwave can also be accomplished in ActiveX: multimedia presentations, Web site navigation, interfacing a database, and so on.