Thanks Naomi - after i posted the message i found a solution that i picked up from this forum last year (sorry i can't remember the expert who came up with it but here it is:)
i don't know whether it can be adapted to xlsm.


lcFile='c:\generic.xls'
Erase (Forceext(lcFile,'xxx'))
ox=Createobject('excel.application')
owb=ox.Workbooks.Open(lcFile)
lcFile=Forceext(lcFile,'xxx')
ox.DisplayAlerts= .F.
owb.SaveAs(lcFile,39)
owb.close()
owb=.null.
ox=.null.
Release owb
Release ox
use mydatabase
Append From (lcFile) xls