> 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. Have you tried writing a Word macro to handle the printing and then quit? From the FoxPro side, all you would have to do is run Word and then run this Macro. After that, you'd be finished with Word and it would clean up after itself. /Paul