ok, let's say that I want to download quotes(bid-ask-sizes-last)from IB into Excel in real time without having to push the 'request market data' button in the sample excel spreadsheet from IB. how do I do that? thanks in advance to those who will respond.
Try attached sample xls file (for edemo user). You should assign different id for different symbols. Then request quotes for these id.
I know the DDE and API links IB provides can be very useful, but it takes some time and skill to figure out how to do anything from scratch. Having a template like you provided gives programming neophytes (like myself) a big headstart.