>> I just came across this article: http://www.compliancepipeline.com/163103761 and am curious if the OpenOffice products and be opened via COM controls? If so, I too may be a convert to OpenOffice. If you think about it, what compelling reason is there for the average user to buy a new version of MS Word? What is new and a have to have enhancement since say Word 97? I am primarily interested in controlling the Excel equivalent product in OpenOffice. Anyone tried doing this?

Yes, OpenOffice.org is an automation server. There's a little bit about this in my Automation book and as Malcolm said, Hentzenwerke has a book that covers the topic. Also, Ted Roche had an article in FoxTalk about this a while back.

I haven't worked with the pre-release of OOo 2.0, but in the shipping version, what you record for a macro is not the same code you'd write for automation, so the task is harder.

Tamar