>What I'm attempting to do is automate a spreadsheet from another program using star office.
>John

There are:

KParts for KDE and KOffice http://www.andamooka.org/kde20devel/chapter13.shtml

CORBA http://www.omg.org/

Bonobo for GNOME and GNOME Office (based on CORBA) http://www.gnome.org/gnome-office/bonobo.shtml