Yeah, i called microsoft and got the same answer i ended up using http://aspose.com to make changes but its not a viewer. They also have a convert to html function so i think i'm going that route, by making changes then convert to html then view a html file. I was wondering what the new office development tools licensing is. but then i read VS 2005 offers a sweet office interface with some aspects royalty free. Did vbforums stop sending out reply emails? anyway thanks for your replies.