>Let me throw this out to do a sanity check: I would like to be able to take a specified word document (.doc) and convert it to text (plus some other formatting changes) from within Foxpro. This would be invisible to the user except for selecting the document to process. I have muddled around with word basic and can get a macro to do some of the formatting issues, but now am trying to figure out how to get Foxpro to initiate this process. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated. Am I attempting the impossible here?!

Just createobject() as Ed said (or getobject()). But only beware if system has word97 installed all of word.basic commands doesn't work as intended and some generate error.
Cetin