DDEExecute

[LVA]

Does someone know how to use DDEExecute to send a command to another application to execute a series of commands available in that application.

The other application is excel and I also need to execute a macro in that excel file.

The idea is as follows:

I have an address filemaker file and I need to export the records to an excel file. Then this file should be open by DDEExecute command and an excel macro should be activated.

[HOnza]

The best source for you is probably Wim Decorte's FileMaker Advisor article on Windows scripting. You can find it online on the following address:

http://filemakeradvisor.com/doc/12001

Unfortunately, the article is available for subscribers only. I will quote at least the most important part which answers your question:

"DDE has always been one of Windows' least understood functions. It suffers from bad documentation, so it's hard to figure out how to connect applications and what syntax to use. In FileMaker Pro, you can only use DDE to send commands to another application. You can't receive DDE commands. Thus, its functionality is limited.

Now, DDE is pretty much officially dead. The latest version of Visual Basic (VB.NET, aka VB 7.0) doesn't support it. It was included in older versions, but mostly for backward compatibility.

Other technologies have taken over. It's evolving: from DDE to OLE/ActiveX to .NET DLLs/XML Web Services."

Wim suggest using Send Message instead of DDE Execute, and he explains how to use it very well in the article.

Hope this helps...

HOnza