>1) I am not sure if VFP can support this one. But in a VB book on databases, there's a discussion of using VB's ISAM driver to access Excel.
>

I think (conjecture) that the ISAM driver is what is used internally when oyu APPEND FROM MySheet.XLS TYPE XLS

>2) Using Excel objects to gain access to the data.

This would probably be much more flexible. Check out the sample that comes with VFP in the Solutions app that shows how to automate Excel to get and set cell values.


>My main question involves the relative speed of these 2 methods. The sample I was given contains 5500 rows and 6 columns. The data is to be sent to us weekly.

If you can make it work, the APPEND FROM method will be the fastest, because you don't have to instanciate Excel to do it.