I have a spreadsheet which uses DDE links to extract data into a spreadsheet.
Unfortunately only a few people have the application installed in order to
perform the DDE updates but the information is required by a wider audience.

Previously those without access to the DDE application could open the
spreadsheet and select 'No' to updating the external links which would leave
the saved data intact. Since we started using Excel 2003 and selecting
'Don't update' external links the spreadsheet opens but shows '#Name?' in all
the cells linked to the external source.

I have tried to use VBA to open the spreadsheet with updatelinks=false but
to no avail. Has anyone come across this problem and hopefully know of a
solution?

In desperation, Dave..