Willow Tips

Tip #2000-2: Displaying color-coded up/down arrows in Excel

The TRIM function

The TRIM function in Excel gets rid of any extra blank spaces that the DDE server sends. If you forget to add TRIM, the DDE server might be sending (blank space, blank space, U, blank space) which Excel reads as NOT being plain, old "U". So even though the last tick was up, you don't get the green UP arrow you're expecting.