Hi!

>Animated GIFs are not media files - you can start and stop them, they will just loop. You can restart them I suppose by reloading the image, but there's no way to stop them short of removing the image.

I have used with VFP6 an ActiveX(GIF89.DLL) that allow to stop the gif and play it again. It has a Play and Stop method. I'm going search for it, again to see if it's compatible with VFP8

>I don't think animated gifs can be transparent.

Yes, they can! See http://www.feebleminds-gifs.com/animated-gifs-8.html

Many Thanks!