Tutorial how to make a connection to Excel using DDEChartupdater

Let us assume that you have an Excel workbook that will be updated with (real-time) quotes automatically. Following steps are necessary to access these quotes with DDEChartUpdater:

1.  Start Excel and open the workbook providing the quotes.

2.  Start DDEChartUpdater.

To display the “Symbol Configuration” dialog, click on “Symbol->Add”. Enter the symbol, name and the directory where you want to store the quotes of this stock.

3.  Click on the “…” button that is located next to the “DDE server name” text box.

4. The “Select DDE Server Name” dialog will appear:

DDEChartUpdater will list all running applications that are supporting DDE. Doubleclick on the “Excel” entry. The dialog will close automatically. Now you have successfully specified the server name.
 

5.  Now you can specify the Excel cell where the “close” record is stored. Click on the “…” button that is located next to the “Close record” text box. The “DDE Settings” dialog will appear.

6.  Excel uses the sheet name as DDE Topic. You can either enter the sheet name manually or using the “…” button to select the sheet names from a list.

Your list may differ from the above topic list. Make sure that you have selected the correct sheet name and double click on it. (Or press the OK button)

7.  Now you have to specify the cell where the close record is stored. Let us assume that the record is stored in the cell “C4”. “C” means that the record is stored in the third column. “4” means that the record is stored in the 4th row. Therefore the DDE item is R4C3. (“R” stands for row, “C” stands for column) The DDE item must be expressed in language of the Excel version. If you use a German Excel version you have to use Z4S3 ("Z" stands for "Zeile", "S" stands for "Spalte") Use L4C3 for French or W4KC for Polish. More examples: If the record is stored in the cell “F10” you have to use following DDE Item: “R10C6”
Cell: A1, DDE Item: R1C1
Cell: D20, DDE Item: R20C4
Cell: H37, DDE Item: R37C8

8.  Please repeat the steps from 5 to 7 if you want to use open, high, etc. prices.

9.  Click on “OK” to close the “Symbol Configuration” dialog.

10. Click on “DDE->Start” to start collecting quotes. If a value in an Excel cell changes, DDEChartUpdater will display the new value in the main window and update the MetaStock/SierraChart files immediately.