>I haven't used functions before - I have always avoided them

WHAT???!??!? Functions and procedures are the very heart of programming.

I hope you mean that you would make a .PRG file called xls_import.prg somewhere in your vfp search path and call it like this:

?xls_import("name of file to import")




- this is my code but it gives errors
>
>

>DO xls_import
>
>FUNCTION xls_import
> 
>
>PARAMETERS tcFile
>** Replaces VFP Import Command for XLS.  VFP Command does not accept xlsx file formats
>** First try the standard import.  
>** If it failes with error code 1661 (Microsoft Excel file format is invalid.) then open Excel and resave with format 39( xlExcel5, xlExcel7 )
>** Try to import again.
>** If it succeeds, return the name of the table
>** If it still fails, return an empty string.  Calling program will check for EMPTY() to determine success
>
>LOCAL lcReturn,lcNewFile
>lcReturn = ""
>
>TRY
>	IMPORT FROM ("c:\colin.xlsx") XLS
>	lcReturn = DBF()
>CATCH
>	=AERROR(abcde)
>	IF abcde[1] = 1661
>		tmpoxl=CREATEOBJECT("excel.application")
>		tmpoxl.DisplayAlerts = .F.
>		tmpoxl.Application.WorkBooks.Open(tcFile)
>		lcNewFile = "c:\tempdl\" + JUSTFNAME(tcfile)
>		tmpoxl.activeworkbook.saveas(lcnewfile,39)
>		tmpoxl.quit
>		tmpoxl= .null.
>		TRY
>			IMPORT FROM (lcnewfile) xls
>			lcReturn = DBF()
>		CATCH
>		ENDTRY
>		DELETE FILE (lcnewfile)
>	ENDIF
>ENDTRY
>RETURN lcReturn
>