I think you may want the Shell command

here is an example:
' Specifying 1 as the second argument opens the application in
' normal size and gives it the focus.
Dim RetVal
RetVal = Shell("C:\WINDOWS\CALC.EXE", 1) ' Run Calculator.

hope this helps

"hoser78" wrote:

I'm new at this so please bear with me. I'm trying to run a non-microsoft
application using the vb in excel 2003. I can do it using the sendkeys
method but I need a better way. I can't get DDEInitiate to work with the
other application. Can anyone help?