>>>What's a good way to determine if Excel is installed?
>>
>>Or FindExecutable (in Shell32) if you've got a valid filename with the XLS extension.
>
>Hi George -- not unless I have a dummy XLS on the server, or something like that...I guess that'd be one way, though.

Hi Bruce,

The reason I mentioned it was that a user may indeed have a file with the XLS extension, but accessing it via another spreadsheet program. FindExecutable() in this instance could be used to determine the appropriate syntax for automation.

And just to prove that there's more than one way to skin a spreadsheet< g > you could try to open the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.Application in the registry. If it fails, you know they don't have Excel.