Visual Basic Examples Using DDE

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Microsoft provides programming examples for illustration only, without warranty either expressed or implied. This includes, but is not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. This article assumes that you are familiar with the programming language that is being demonstrated and with the tools that are used to create and to debug procedures. Microsoft support engineers can help explain the functionality of a particular procedure, but they will not modify these examples to provide added functionality or construct procedures to meet your specific requirements. The following macro code provides some simple examples using DDE from Microsoft Excel to Microsoft Word.

Macro Example 1

To use the first macro, Microsoft Word will either need to be in the PATH statement in the Autoexec.bat file, or Microsoft Word must be running.

1. Enter the following macro code in a new module sheet.

      Sub Using_DDE1()
   
      ' Dimension the variables.
      Dim Chan As Integer
      Dim RequestItems As Variant
   
      ' Start a channel to Word using the System topic.
      Chan = DDEInitiate("WinWord", "System")
   
      ' Requesting information from Word using the Formats item
      ' this will return a one dimensional array.
      RequestItems = DDERequest(Chan, "Formats")
   
      ' Uses a FOR loop to cycle through the array and display in a message
      ' box.
      For i = LBound(RequestItems) To UBound(RequestItems)
          MsgBox RequestItems(i)
      Next i
   
      ' Terminate the DDE channel.
      DDETerminate Chan
   
      End Sub
   						

2. Run the "Using_DDE1" macro.

A series of message boxes will be displayed with each of the available format types in Microsoft Word.

Macro Example 2

To use this second example, Microsoft Word must be in the PATH statement in the Autoexec.bat. To edit the Autoexec.bat, you can use an MS-DOS Editor or Notepad in Windows.

1. Save a Microsoft Word document, called ddetest.doc to the root of your drive C.
2. Open a new Microsoft Excel workbook and in Sheet1, cell A1, enter hello.
3. Enter the following macro code into a new module sheet in this workbook.

      Sub Using_DDE2()
   
      ' Dimension the variables.
      Dim PokeRange As Object
      Dim Chan As Integer
   
      ' Create an range object to poke.
      Set PokeRange = Range("Sheet1!a1")
   
      ' Initiate a channel to Word using a file as the topic.
      Chan = DDEInitiate("WinWord", "c:\ddetest.doc")
   
      ' Execute a few WordBasic commands.
      DDEExecute Chan, "[FileNewDefault]"
      DDEExecute Chan, "[InsertPara]"
      DDEExecute Chan, "[InsertPara]"
   
      ' Pokes the data in A1 into ddetest.doc.
      ' This is not poked into the active document.
      ' The data is placed in the topic that started the DDE conversation.
      ' \StartOfDoc is a predefined bookmark in Word.
      DDEPoke Chan, "\StartOfDoc", PokeRange
   
      ' Terminate the DDE channel.
      DDETerminate Chan
      End Sub
   						

4. Run the "Using_DDE2" macro.
5. Open the "ddetest.doc" document in Microsoft Word.
   
   Note that the word "hello" (without the quotation marks) is added to the beginning of the document.