I'm new to remedy administration, and I have a user that receives The format for the application section in dde.ini is invalid - you can specify only CSV or TAB for format. (ARERR 1883)
when they try to export to an application. Can someone advise

Wow. Talk about timing (I just had this problem yesterday).

1.) make sure that the dde.ini file is just plain text (so try to avoid opening it in any editor that will add hidden binary CR/LF codes)
2.) make sure that the dde.ini file is in the \HOME directory, not \HOME\ARCmds

That *should* take care of it.

Regards,

Bill

And make sure that there are no leading spaces at the end of lines.

Try putting something like this in a DDE.ini file in C:\home

[ExcelReport]
path=c:\progra~1\micros~1\office\excel.exe
application=excel
topic=system
format=TAB
XFRDATA=File
Command1=[OPEN("%f")]

This is an example of dde.ini

[Excel]
Path="C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office 2003\OFFICE11\excel.exe"
Application=excel
Topic=system
Format=Tab
XFRDATA=Clipboard
Command1=[OPEN("D:\Ars_2007.xls")][WORKBOOK.ACTIVATE("Ars_Info")][PASTE("R1C1")][FREEZE.PANES(TRUE,1,1)][SELECT.END(4)][SELECT.LAST.CELL( )][SAVE()]

Regards,

Sergio

Does anyone know of a place where there is a concise list of options you can pass via dde.ini to external applications, specifically excel, to manipulate the data as it goes into the spreadsheet?

The best way is to pass the data to Excel, then run a macro that does the formatting.
An example of the dde.ini entry is:

eg.

[Excel Telco Daily]
Path=c:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office11\excel.exe
Application=excel
Topic=system
Format=TAB
XFRDATA=Clipboard
Command1=[NEW(1)][PASTE()][SAVE.AS(,0)]
Command2=[RUN("Telco.XLS!TelcoDailyFormat")]

Where:
Telco.XLS is the template that is in the "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office11\XLStart" or "C:\Program Files\Office11\XLStart" directory (Office11 is for Office 2003).

TelcoDailyFormat is the macro that you want to run.