>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 found this very interesting and added it to my project. I added the code to the oAnimation call, the processing and the release to the command button that starts my process, and I added the animation prg to the prject. All went well on my machine, but when others use the exe, the get an OLE error "not registered".

I'm obviously new to all this....what step am I missing?

TIA,