DDERequest Method

Applies To

Application object.

Description

Requests information from the specified application. This method always returns an array; for more information, see the example.

Syntax

expression.DDERequest(Channel, Item)

expression Optional. An expression that returns an Application object.

Channel Required Long. The channel number returned by the DDEInitiate method.

Item Required String. The item to be requested.

Example

This example opens a channel to the System topic in Word for Windows and then uses the Topics item to return a list of all open documents. The list is returned in column A on Sheet1.

channelNumber = Application.DDEInitiate( _
    app:="WinWord", _
    topic:="System")
returnList = Application.DDERequest(channelNumber, "Topics")
For i = LBound(returnList) To UBound(returnList)
    Worksheets("Sheet1").Cells(i, 1).Formula = returnList(i)
Next i
Application.DDETerminate channelNumber

This example opens a channel to the System topic in Word for the Macintosh and then uses the Topics item to return a list of all open documents. The list is returned in column A on Sheet1. On the Macintosh, you must use the Shell function to start Word, because the DDEInitiate method doesn't automatically start Word as it does in Windows. Also, because the Shell function is asynchronous, the macro may call the DDEInitiate method before Word has started. This example demonstrates how you can program around this by putting the DDEInitiate method call in a loop, testing channelNumber until it is no longer an error.

Shell MacID("MSWD"), 6
Do
    channelNumber = Application.DDEInitiate( _
        app:="MSWord", _
        topic:="System")
Loop Until TypeName(channelNumber) <> "Error"
returnList = Application.DDERequest(channelNumber, "Topics")
For i = LBound(returnList) To UBound(returnList)
    Worksheets("Sheet1").Cells(i, 1).Formula = returnList(i)
Next i
Application.DDETerminate channelNumber