Did MS change DDE Syntax Thus Preventing Link Insertion?

raydela · Post by **raydela** » Wed Sep 10, 2003 2:27 pm

Hello,

I have Office XP and am trying to import data from Excel to create a Polar Chart. During the various unsuccessful attempts (combinations of Program Name, Topic, Cell Range) to use "Insert Link...", the most
hopeful DPlot error dialog reported the following:

"Could not get any data from Excel|Data|B40:C48"

(I know when I'm really off track when I get the error "Cannot connect with ...")

When I looked at the Excel Help regarding DDE, it shows the syntax as:

Program Name|Topic!Cell Range

I then noticed the DPlot error dialog shows the pipe (|) symbol between the topic and cell range rather than the exclamation point (!).

Did Microsoft change requirement of (|) to (!) in Excel XP, thus making it incompatible with this version of DPlot? Otherwise, what am I doing wrong here?

Thanks,
Ray

Post by **DPlotAdmin** » Wed Sep 10, 2003 4:43 pm

Ray,
The 2nd pipe symbol in the error message should be an exclamation point as you said, but that syntax isn't actually used in the link so this isn't important. I'll fix the error message for sure, though. Thanks for pointing that out.

"Cannot connect with..." will normally mean that (the obvious) Excel isn't running, or you don't have a sheet with the name you used.

Try using R1C1 notation. I tried Application=Excel, Topic=Sheet1, Item=R1C1:R20C2 just now and it worked fine. But Item=A1:B20 gave the same error message you received. This is on Windows 2000, but I'll be surprised if XP doesn't behave the same way. I'll be able to check out XP later tonight. At the very least you've pointed out a need for better documentation on the Insert Link command, thanks.

Post by **DPlotAdmin** » Wed Sep 10, 2003 6:29 pm

Just a confirmation... R1C1 references worked fine with Office XP; A1:B100 does not.

If this doesn't solve your problem please let us know.

raydela · Post by **raydela** » Thu Sep 11, 2003 12:14 pm

Thanks! R1C1 Format did the trick.

Ray