Well, good to see that I can stump some people :-)

Talked with a friend who's a VBA demi-god and here's what we got:
------------------------------------
....
Visible = isVisible("Refresh Data") 'Example of use
If Visible Then...
....

Function isVisible(sButton As String) As Boolean

On Error GoTo ErrorHandler
isVisible = Application.CommandBars("PivotTable").Controls(sBu tton).Visible
Exit Function

ErrorHandler:
isVisible = False
Exit Function
End Function
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Toby Erkson
Oregon, USA