>I have a project coming up that will require me to take a few hundred XLS files and convert them to PDF. I was wondering if anybody had suggestions as to the best way to go about this?

If Excel is installed, and you know the filenames (*.xls) in advance, and you have a PDF writer (Adobe, Amyuni, etc.) then you could write a loop with Adir() and For..Next using Excel automation to set the printer to the PDF driver and print each file. You do not have to make Excel visible or anything. Just instance and send file to printer.

I do not know if you can send an XLS file to print directly from Windows (maybe with WinAPI or WSH), without using COM Automation, but that may be another idea to investigate.