Word VBA sending data to VB app via DDE

I have a Word document that runs a stand-alone VB app (.EXE) and sends parameters to it via the command line.

In particular, when I right-click on a word in the doc and then fire-up a VBA function via the popup menu, that word is sent to the VB app. in Command(). All works like a charm.

However, what I would like to do is be able to send that word to the VB app even if it's already running, i.e. if the app is running it should accept this argument and recognize somehow that it received it, e.g. an event.

DDE seems to be one way to do this, but everywhere I look for info and examples on using Dynamic Data Exchange, it's as clear as mud (muDDE?)

This is just a one-way "poke"? but I can't get these guys communicating.

Anyone have any ideas or examples (that don't involve Excel!)?

Thanks, DaveBo