Ok... here's a neat trick... Windows XP.. .office 2000 on a relatively high end Toshiba laptop. Run MS Excel and select "insert object"... scoll to PowerPoint Presentation and click that "show icon" check box... So far so good? Ok... now type anything in the slide show template... and then, the fun part... click the "X" to close PowerPoint and return to Excel. Bet you can't read all that white text on the dark blue background before the little fucker reboots completely. Sing it with me; [ ::OLE:: ] gah!!!!!!!!!!!!!