I have a function that opens MS word, creates a document, and prints it completely n the background. I would like for the function to close down Word when it is finished printing. The problem is that if I issue the command to close Word right after the command to print, Word gives a message asking if I want to close and cancelthe print job. (Word is still busy printing when I issuethe command). I need to delay the command to close for several seconds, preferrably during which control is returned to my program. A timer object seems the logical solution, but I cannot reference the Word object outside of the method that instantiates it. Is it kosher to declare a OLE object as global so I can reference it from a timer? Any other suggestion as to how to tackle this? Thanks in advance for any help.

Erik