>Back in FPW 2.6 I wrote a lot of DDE stuff interfacing with Lotus 1-2-3. If my experience there is any indication, there shouldn't be any problem in the Runtime version. However, I'd strongly recommend that the application be running prior to your attempting to initiate the DDE conversation. The simplest way is to first check to see if the program is running. I wrote a function (Is_Run32) that's available from the UT download section, that will give you the window handle if the application is running. All you have to do is pass it the known portion of the title bar. If it isn't, then I'd recommend the Shell32.dll functions, to either locate (FindExecutable) whether or not Excel is present or start it (ShellExecute) from the file you want it to run.
>
>Simply trying to get it to run by initiating a DDE conversation probably won't work even if the application is installed.

Thanks for the Advice,
I tried it and it still doesn't work. I found a function called
DDEEnabled. It let's you globally turn on and off DDE as well as
tell whether DDE is globally available when called with no parameters.
When I call this function under Development it returns .t. but
under run-time it returns .f..

When I create the run-time disks, there are several optional components.
I suspect I maybe need to select one of those. But I'm not sure.

Thanks Again,

Eddie