>Hi:
>
>I have an client\server application that needs to be migrated to the web. The system was years in the making and offers a lot of functionality and does a lot MS Office Automation. It also has its own mail client and a client side data store to house static data.
>
>My orignial plan was to maintain the existing front end by doing a fat client web app using XML messaging and Web Services. Now they are saying it needs to be Thin client. I doubt whether an HTML interface can ever be as useful a full blown Windows app, espcially in this case. Also, can you do MS Office Automation from an app running in a browser?
>
>Thanx,
>Charlie

You could use MIME types for word/excel documents. For example, to generate a page that will open excel on the browser include this at the top of your ASP:

Response.ContentType = "application/vnd.ms-excel"

The HTML returned from the ASP will be rendered in Excel. In the case of Excel it helps the formatting if you put everything in HTML tables.

For Word documents the type is:

Response.ContentType = "application/msword"

Of course Excel or Word are required in the client. HTH