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DDEInitiate Method

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Opens a dynamic data exchange (DDE) channel to another application, and returns the channel number.

Security  Dynamic data exchange (DDE) is an older technology that is not secure. If possible, use a more secure alternative to DDE, such as object linking and embedding (OLE).

expression**.DDEInitiate(App**, Topic)

expression Optional. An expression that returns an Application object.

App    Required String. The name of the application.

Topic    Required String. The name of a DDE topic — for example, the name of an open document — recognized by the application to which you're opening a channel.

Remarks

If it's successful, the DDEInitiate method returns the number of the open channel. All subsequent DDE functions use this number to specify the channel.

Example

This example initiates a DDE conversation with the System topic and opens the Microsoft Excel workbook Sales.xls. The example terminates the DDE channel, initiates a channel to Sales.xls, and then inserts text into cell R1C1.

Dim lngChannel As Long

lngChannel = DDEInitiate(App:="Excel", Topic:="System")
DDEExecute Channel:=lngChannel, Command:="[OPEN(" & Chr(34) _
    & "C:\Sales.xls" & Chr(34) & ")]
DDETerminate Channel:=lngChannel
lngChannel = DDEInitiate(App:="Excel", Topic:="Sales.xls")
DDEPoke Channel:=lngChannel, Item:="R1C1", Data:="1996 Sales"
DDETerminate Channel:=lngChannel

Applies to | Application Object | Global Object

See Also | Communicating with Other Applications | DDEExecute Method | DDEPoke Method | DDERequest Method | DDETerminate Method | DDETerminateAll Method