Knowledge Base

DDE Links to Microsoft Access Not Updated Automatically

Article ID: 104440

Article Last Modified on 8/15/2003

APPLIES TO

This article was previously published under Q104440

SYMPTOMS

In Microsoft Excel, when you use dynamic data exchange (DDE) to import Microsoft Access 1.x or 2.0 data, the DDE links are not updated when you make changes to the source data.

CAUSE

This situation occurs because the versions of Microsoft Access listed above do not support hot links.

This behavior is by design of Microsoft Access and Microsoft Excel.

WORKAROUND

To update a Microsoft Access link, do the following:

  1. In the Microsoft Excel document that you want to update, click Links on the Edit menu. (Click Links on the File menu in versions 4.0 and earlier.)
  2. In the Links list box, select the link or links to be updated.
  3. Click Update.

    NOTE: Your data will change to #N/A until you complete step 4.
  4. Click Close.
The Microsoft Access data will update correctly assuming that Microsoft Access is installed on your computer and the directory where Microsoft Access is located is included in the PATH statement of your Autoexec.bat file.

MORE INFORMATION



The easiest way to use DDE is to create a paste link between Microsoft Access and Microsoft Excel. To do this, use the following steps:

  1. In the Microsoft Access Database window, highlight the table you want to link to Microsoft Excel.
  2. In Microsoft Access, click Copy on the Edit menu.
  3. In Microsoft Excel versions 5.0, 7.0 and 97, on the Edit menu, click Paste Special, then select Paste Link. (In Microsoft Excel version 4.0 and earlier, on the Edit menu, click Paste Link.) The formula resulting from the Paste Link command should look like this:

    {=MSAccess|'NWIND.MDB;Table <Customers'>!All}

    where <Customers> is the name of the table you copied.

    NOTE: Microsoft Excel cannot read the default Access .MDB file format directly.

REFERENCES

"User's Guide 2," version 4.0, pages 126-132
"User's Guide," version 3.0, pages 338-344

Additional query words: 3.0 3.00 4.0 4.00 4.0a 4.00a 5.0 5.00c 7.0 8.00 97 OLE XL

Keywords: kbinterop KB104440


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