This page explains how to have access to market quotes using QuoteLink through Microsoft Excel

1. You need a standard or professional subscription
2. download and install QuoteLink tools using the username/password received by email.
3. once QuoteLink is installed a new icon qL appears in the tray icon on the right of your PC task bar. The qL icon holds all the menus necessary to control and operate QuoteLink
4. configure a data provider feed using these feed specific instructions
5. set the the feed you have just configured as the default feed
6. click on the qL icon then choose the menu Excel Examples > Basic. An example sheet containing example quotes will open. The quotes should be updating during market hours if your feed is a streaming one.
7. Open a new empty Excel workbook.
8. Type one or more stock symbols (one per row) using capital letters and select them using the mouse or the keyboard.
9. display the cell shortcut menu by clicking over the selection with mouse right button selection screenshot
10. Select Quote wizards → Quotes to display a quote list using the current feed (see result ). result screenshot

QuoteLink wizards paste worksheet formulas on to the spreadsheet. These formulas do the real work themselves by connecting to the underlying framework. For level 1 formulas have 3 parameters the ticker, the field and the feed abbreviation.

=P("CSCO", "LAST", "MSN")   

Feed abbreviations are defined when the feed is configured. QuoteLink supports many feeds either directly or indirectly each feed is identified by its abbreviation. If no abbreviation is given as the third argument in a formula the default feed is used.

The quotes menu used above is implemented using a predefined spreadsheet called wizard (the way these wizards work is not far from that of the Excel templates with the difference that they act in ranges of cells rather then on full documents). The predefined examples are simple examples showing common used fields(LAST, BID, ASK,…) of general interest. QuoteLink offers the possibility to create your own wizards (see documentation) and list them on the menu for fast and repeated use.

To start the best way, always keep in mind that wizards are just a means to paste formatted formulas into the cells. In their turn these formulas will, when evaluated by Excel, retrieve the data from the servers. The power of custom wizards is that you can add not only any of the fields you are interested in (and there are quite a lot for richer sources) but also your own formulas, by combining them.

Off course you could simply type =P(“MSFT”,”LAST”,”MSN”) or =P(“MSFT”,”LAST”) (to use the default feed) in a cell or use copy, paste, macros, VBA or any way of creating formulas in Excel. Function parameters might be cell references. Many users prefer this technique specially when using already existing or complex spreadsheets.

Once the quote list is shown, you'll probably want to use the following handy shortcuts:

1. You can add a new quote at the end of the quote list by typing the symbol name and pressing Ctrl+G (configurable in preferences).
2. You can add a symbol to the quote list by copying one line and pasting it and then typing a new symbol.
3. You can change the field for a column just by writing the new field name in the in the header cell for the column.
4. You can add a field by copying one column and pasting it as a new column then typing the new field name in the header cell.
5. Similarly you can type a different symbol name over the old one and the complete row will then refer to that symbol.
6. To see all fields available for a feed, select the symbol and use menu Full Quote. The menu full quote will open a window with all fields available for that type of instrument. Drag a field name from the full quote page and drop it in a column header cell or click on the data part in the full quote page and drag it to a cell to create a formula there.
7. When multiple feeds are configure you may change your feed on the fly by typing a new feed abbreviation in the left top cell.

screenshot explaining some of these features

You can easily create your own wizards and add them to the menus for easy access Creating quote lists with wizards