>Exactly how does this work with shell execute? It seems like the application would have to save the modified document and release the reference to it so that the user could access it with Getfile() during the shelled process. Would this open a second instance of Word? When the shell process is done, the application gets control but would have to reopen the document in order to continue processing. It seems like this would work so long as the user didn't delete the document, move it, or rename it while saving their changes.
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>I was hoping there was a neat way to get control back to the VFP application without allowing the user to save or close the document or Word itself. The combination of .Visible = .t. and .Activate() works well to give the user the ability to edit, EXCEPT for the fact that you can't control what happens next :-)
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>I actually did something a bit similar years ago by copying the text into a memo field and allowing the user to edit, then copying the modifications back to a VFP report. However, this text has much more sophisticated formatting that needs to be preserved. Is there perhaps an RTF control that could provide similar functionality?


>>>It seems like this would work so long as the user didn't delete the document, move it, or rename it while saving their changes.

Make your document read-only, and disable the Save, Save as... in Word, and close the first instance of Word.