>back in my VFP app, i want to be able to sit there and wait for them to quit Word, at which time i will store the clipboard contents into a memo field.

An alternative solution is to bind some code to Word's Quit event. In VFP 7, use the EventHandler() function. In VFP 6, you'll need VFPCOM.DLL, which you can download from the Microsoft VFP website.

Tamar