Thanks for that Andrew - I'll try that out in the next few hours - just after a bout of testing a business object !!!

>Hi Jamie,
>
>Accessing the data via ODBC seems to do the trick.
>
>Set up a datasource (or build a connection string on the fly) pointing to the table. Connect to it with SQLCONNECT. Find the sheet names with SQLTABLES() and the columns within the sheet with SQLCOLUMNS().
>
>HTH
>
>Cheers,
>
>Andrew
>
>>>>>Whether /import .... XL8 SHEET sheet_name/ does not do what you need?
>>>>>Additionally you could use Excel Automation to gather all Sheet Names and then process them as needed. Like:
>>>>>ObjExcel= CREATEOBJECT("Excel.Application")
>>>>>with ObjExcel
>>>>>.Workbooks.Open("c:\book1.xls")
>>>>>for ia=1 to .Worksheets.count
>>>>>?.Worksheets(ia).NAme
>>>>>.....
>>>>
>>>>Thanks - I'll have to use the automation even though it gets me back to my original problem of not wanting the auto_open macro to fire when opening the workbook with automation .
>>>>
>>>>Cheers,
>>>>Jamie
>>>
>>>Jamie,
>>>
>>>I am confused. AFAIK, auto_open macro does not fire while Automation. It works 'automatically' upon open document manually only. What kind of auto_open macro do you have?
>>
>>Sorry - I have been meaning the workbook_open macro - not auto_open. The workbook_open macro definitely fires during automation. I am wanting to get certain sheet data out without it firing.