Methods and systems are provided for exposing nested data in computer-generated documents in a transparent manner. A mechanism is provided for a client application to query a server application for a list of available file formats after an object is requested from a server application document for embedding into a client application document. Another mechanism is provided for the client application to request a particular format associated with the embedded object from the server application document. Once the client application obtains file format information available to the server application or associated with the particular object, the client application may utilize the obtained file formats for utilizing or operating on the embedded object according to the native file formats associated with the embedded object.