Richard, check out the Windows API "ShellExecute". You can use this to load files by their registered apps automatically. If the registered app is already running, it will use that running instance. Do a search on ShellExecute for more info.

Mon

>Works great! But here's a twist: change external program to WORD; what if a document is already open in WORD, and I want to open another document in the same instance of WORD (if I execute the code now, WORD will open again) No big deal, guess I could just have VFP check to see if WORD is already open, and close it 1st if it is open, then issue the run command Comments? Thanks.