we've dealt with this problem somewhat. We haven't been able to do anything so neat as to bind an excel spreadsheet to a grid, or anything like that, but you can do any kind of data manipulation you want by setting a reference in your vb project to the excel type library, then creating/opening workbooks & setting the value of some controls on a form to the value of any cell in the workbook. With some work you could make yourself a library of "binding" code to bind some controls on a vb form to a spreadsheet, update the underlying spreadsheet if changed, & use an implicit cursor to navigate through records in the spreadsheet. We've never done anything so ambitious here, so I have no code examples to send you. The best advice I can give you is to use the record macro command off the tools menu in Excel to create the VB code you need to use & then paste that into your vb project. Pick up a copy of the Excel 97 developer's guide by the MS Press for more information.