Did you try

oInspector.Visible = .t. before your code and if it would not work, try moving WindowState set after Display.

>thank you sergey. i get an error on
>loInspector.WindowState = olMinimized
>with explanation as follows
>
>'unable to set the window state of this explorer or inspector since it has not yet been made visible' (error 1429)
>
>any ideas i can try?
>
>k
>
> olMinimized = 1
> IF tlOpenEmail
> *.display()
> loInspector = .GetInspector()
> loInspector.WindowState = olMinimized
> .display()
>
> ELSE
> .SEND()
> ENDIF