DDEInitiate Method

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