Thanks Daniel (and everyone else who contributed with responses and locations to find examples). I tested your example and it works great. I've decided to implement something similar to this as your example made it very easy to understand and it works perfect.
Tracy

>Tracy,
>If you go the AVI route as others have suggested, the following code may give you some ideas. In order to display an animation form, you do the following:
>
>

>*-- display an animation form
>oAnimation = NEWOBJECT("Animation", "avi.prg", "",;
>                       "Message to display...",;
>                       "Window caption (optional)",;
>                       "YourAvi.avi")
>
>*-- processing goes here...
>
>*-- remove animation form
>RELEASE oAnimation
>

>
>If you need some more AVI files, check out the following site http://www.pjs-inc.com/vb-avi
>
>HTH
>
>

>************************************************
>*-- Class: Animation
>************************************************
>*  Author............: Daniel Gramunt
>*  Created...........: 17.05.99  17:03:36
>*) Description.......: Displays an animation (AVI) using the animation control that
>*)                   : ships with VFP.
>*)                   : Handy for processes for which you cannot use a thermometer.
>*  Calling Samples...: oAnimation = NEWOBJECT("Animation", "avi.prg", "",;
>*                    :                        "Creating PDF file",;
>*                    :                        "PDF converter",;
>*                    :                        "FileToPdf.avi")
>*  Parameter List....:
>*  Major change list.:
>*--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>DEFINE CLASS Animation AS form
>
>  DataSession = 1
>  Height = 85
>  Width = 360
>  AutoCenter = .T.
>  Caption = ""
>  ControlBox = .F.
>  Closable = .F.
>  ClipControls = .F.
>  Name = "frmAnimation"
>
>  ADD OBJECT lblMessage AS label WITH ;
>    WordWrap = .T., ;
>    Caption = "Your message goes here...", ;
>    Left = 6, ;
>    Top = 2, ;
>    Width = 355, ;
>    Name = "lblMessage"
>
>  PROCEDURE Load
>    This.AddObject("oleAnimation", "oleControl", "MsComCtl2.Animation.2")
>    WITH This.oleAnimation
>      .Top     = 28
>      .Left    = 46
>      .Visible = .f.
>    ENDWITH
>  ENDPROC
>
>  PROCEDURE Init
>    *  Parameter List....: tcMessage - Message to display. Optional.
>    *                    : tcCaption - Form caption. Optional.
>    *                    :             If omitted, the form doesn't have a title bar
>    *                    : tcAviFile - Animation file to display (default = fileCopy.avi)
>    *  Major change list.:
>    *--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>    LPARAMETER tcMessage, tcCaption, tcAviFile
>
>    WITH This
>
>       *-- check parameters ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>       IF TYPE("tcMessage") <> "C" OR EMPTY(tcMessage)
>         tcMessage = "Processing. Please be patient..."
>       ENDIF
>       IF TYPE("tcCaption") <> "C" OR EMPTY(tcCaption)
>        *-- no caption, so we remove the title bar
>         .TitleBar = 0
>       ELSE
>         .TitleBar = 1
>         .caption = tcCaption
>       ENDIF
>       IF TYPE("tcAviFile") <> "C"
>         tcAviFile = "fileCopy.avi"
>       ENDIF
>       .lblMessage.caption = tcMessage
>       .aviPlay(tcAviFile)
>       .show()
>    ENDWITH
>  ENDPROC
>
>  PROCEDURE AviPlay
>     LPARAMETERS tcAviFile
>
>     *-- make sure file exists
>     IF FILE(tcAviFile)
>       *-- update animation
>       WITH ThisForm.oleAnimation
>         .visible = .f.
>         .stop
>         .open(FULLPATH(tcAviFile))
>         .play()
>         .Height  = 60
>         .Width   = 275
>         .visible = .t.
>       ENDWITH
>     ENDIF
>   ENDPROC
>
>ENDDEFINE
>

>
>>I would like to implement something other than a wait/nowait message to notify the user that an event is occurring. I need it to display, but not stop processing. I want to release it when the process is finished. It needs to be visual, but will not be incremented since I will not know how long the process will take and have no way of monitoring the status of the process. I'm pulling information from the com port from a Phonetree system and I will not know how much data will be received through the port. I only know when it is finished. Yet I want the user to be notified that the event is still processing and not to proceed until it is finished. Any ideas? I'd like a clock with the hands spinning, a special hourglass (to distinguish it from the typical hourglass), or something of the same type. I searched downloads and didn't find what I'd like. Is there a class out there or define/enddefine code someone's used to do this?
>>TIA,
>>Tracy