Hi, Bonnie...

Follow-up question...in a nutshell, I was able to do what I needed by the following, using a simple interface to identify the custom container that I need to drop on a form at runtime:

System.Reflection.Assembly oDLL;
UserControl oControl = new UserControl();
oDLL = System.Reflection.Assembly.LoadFrom("MyExternal.DLL");
foreach(Type o in oDLL.GetTypes())
if(o is ICustomContainer) // simple interface

oControl = (UserControl)Activator.CreateInstance(o);

This works...but what I'm curious about is whether I can call CreateInstance, passing instead a string for the name of the container that I want to drop on the form.

The online helps says that CreateInstance can receive a string, but I keep running into problems with the object that it returns. I need to look at this further, but was curious if you had a quick answer.

It may be better if I just stick with using a simple interface anyway, but was just curious (maybe for down the road) if I can call createinstance with a string.

Thanks!
Kevin