Hi Ed,
Sorry, I mistyped in the last message. Yes, I put the parens in the APPEND FROM statement. Here is my exact code:

SELECT CuDedEmp
APPEND FROM (DBF("CuDed1Emp")) && this fails
SELECT CuDed1Emp && this works

Since the statement "SELECT CuDed1Emp" works properly, it is clear that VFP can see the cursor CuDed1Emp, but the APPEND FROM statement cannot! Very strange.

Best regards, Chaim