Thanks all

If Ii understand it right, VBA is built in to the various office apps and is presumably a subset of VB (or Visual Studio)?

My concern is to build a menu driven input system that is uncluttered but dynamically able to create documents (and database entries) from user input.

Each document is unique - there are a large number of standard elements, a selection of which are incorporated into each individual document, which one is dependent on input data. These elements have embedded variables which take other input data and often further process it.

So I don't need (or want) to see the document during the creation process, but really want something like an Access record with input. Only when the document is finished would I want Word to show it for proofing and printing.

Is what I want a full VB project, or could this be done with VBA?

I get very confused by the variety of versions of MS apps that are available, and the pricing schemas that are used. (I am still trying to find out which version of Windows 2003 server software I now have to buy!).

So the bottom line is: is VBA flexible enough, or do I need VB.NET, in which case is the Amazon offering the right one?

Many thanks Dreamboat, for your help on the other issue. Aren't you glad I didn't offload this on you as well? Guess that phone call could have got kinda long! I will look at the VB forum, but this one here has lots of interestng stuff too!

Christopher