DDE

Dynamic Data Exchange. A protocol that allows two independent Windows applications to "talk" to each other and exchange data. OLE (Object Linking and Embedding), another method for manipulating data in other applications, is similar to DDE, but in OLE operations, actual program control is transferred temporarily to the other application. With DDE, operations occur when one application sends a command to the other application to start communication between the two. One application, however, always has program control.