Mike,

I was in the process of updating the reply for VFP7, but couldn't since you'd just replied.

Update, I see you are doing this in VFP7 so you have to use an error trap on this

oExcel = createobject( "Excel.Application" )
if ( vartype( oExcel ) != "O" )
   Messagebox( "you must install Excel in order to be able to use this cool feature of my app" )
endif

* Error method of the class trying to run the above code
lparameter nError, cMethod, nLine

if ( nError = 1733 )
   * problem starting up Excel
   return
else
   dodefault( nError, cMethod, nLine )
endif

>You are absolutely right.
>
>I have installed Excel and it works fine now.