Forum Discussion
no links/VBA/addons, but : Microsoft excel waiting for another application to complete an ole action
NLysette Your suggestion to check to ignore other applications that use DDE seems to have fixed my issue. Now I want to understand what a DDE?
Hi BirdieErnie, I think I can answer that...
DDE - Direct Data Exchange works by creating a memorised link between objects. A bit like typing '=A1' into cell A2 on a spreadsheet will link the two cells together, such that typing anything in cell A1 will magically appear in cell A2.
However, as simple as that sounds, it gets more complicated when you link cells to locations in other places. It's OK between 2 cells in the same spreadsheet, or even between tabs, but if you're linking between two or more spreadsheets, between tables and charts or other MS packages (Word, PowerPoint, etc.) then the links can be difficult to follow. And the more links, the more time it takes to locate and update them.
That's what causes DDE to hang/fail. If you send/receive a file from someone and it has links then when it's opened Microsoft will try to update the file with the latest data. To achieve this it will try to find the links. It only takes one of these links to point to say, a SharePoint directory, a spreadsheet that you haven't shared, or a spreadsheet sitting on the powered-off laptop in the boot of your car and hey presto - DDE failure!
As another little bonus, there is also likely to be a time limit for searching for those links. Microsoft (quite rightly) don't expect you to wait forever, so it gives up searching after a set amount of time - result = DDE failure!