19.5. Basic Trouble-Shooting for Excel Connections
If you cannot get a connection working in Excel, there are a couple of things you can check:
Is the workbook automatic calculation turned on? It may need to be in order for the links to update.
Is Update links to other documents turned off? It may need to be turned on for the links to update.
Is Ignore other applications that use Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) turned off?
In the worksheet, select and ensure that the links are automatically updated. Also select Startup Prompt in the Edit Links dialog and ensure that the links are set to automatically update.
In the Edit Links dialog, try pressing Update Values. Do the values change in the spreadsheet? If they do, it seems to confirm that there is an Excel setting interfering with normal operation.
Also be sure these initial points are covered:
Make sure the Act as a DDE Server checkbox is checked in the DataHub DDE properties window.
Make sure you have at least one DDE Service name listed in the list just below that checkbox.
Make sure Excel is set to do Automatic Calculations, (See , , tab for details). When set to Manual Calculations, Excel will not process incoming DDE events.
Messages from Excel
When you save and close a spreadsheet connected to the DataHub instance and then attempt to reopen it, you may get one or more messages, depending on your security settings in Excel, or other circumstances. Here's a summary of each message, and what to do:
- This document contains macros. Enable them?
Click .
- This workbook contains links. Update them?
Click . If the DataHub instance is already running, all the links should then update automatically. If not, you may get a
#REF!entry in some cells, and the next message (see below) will probably appear.- Remote data not accessible. Start a DataHub instance?
Click . At this point the best thing to do is close the worksheet, start the requested program, and then reopen the worksheet. When you update the spreadsheet (see above) this time you won't get any
#REF!entries.
Excel not accepting DDE client connection
When using a DataHub instance with Excel for the first time, you may encounter this message:
Outgoing DDE Client connection failed...
This is likely due to Excel configuration. In Excel, go to the menu, and select . There, under the General heading, ensure that the box is not checked.
Excel not updating
The default settings in Excel allow you to drag and drop from a DataHub instance into your spreadsheet and see the data updating automatically. Sometimes however the Excel configuration may have been changed so that you do not see this. For example, if you drag a data point into Excel and you get the first value, but then nothing after that, you may want to check the following settings.
For newer versions of Excel, in the menu go to > > Calculation options.
Ensure that the option in Workbook Calculation is selected.
Go to > When calculating this workbook
Ensure that the option is selected.
In older versions of Excel, from the menu, choose to open the Options window.
Ensure that the option in Calculation is selected.
Ensure that the Update remote references option in Workbook options is selected. Then close the Options window.
From the menu, choose to open the Edit Links window.
Ensure that the Automatic option for Update is selected. Then close the Edit Links window.