I totaly agree and have been saying for ages that i need to get back in to programing yes i would go for visual basic i have VB6 here plus a very good book on learning VB i used to program in Qbasic so i am sure VB would be a breeze....truth is i just don't have the time right now to learn....Excel works well for what i need and when i have a problem i post on that forum and with in 1/2 hour i have my answer......the truth is i don't like paying for anything on the net because there is so much that is free if you take the time to look.....i think the best thing about doing my own programing would be the program would be a stand alone program that would look professional.....mostly what i use excel for is to extract form then turn that form in to ratings...excel does this very well.