Thanks for help so far - I'm getting close.

Using SendKeys, I send commands to another (non-Office) program that is
activated. Its old window ("Aux Interval") disappears and is eventually (in 1
to 15 seconds) replaced with a new one ("Aux Interval - Steve") having info
on the person named in the title bar. The new window still has the focus, so
I don't need to activate it. How can I check when it appears so Excel can
continue sending commands?

Jacob Skaria wrote:

--In order to check whether the the other application is open or not you can use FindWindow

Public Declare Function FindWindow Lib "user32" Alias "FindWindowA" _
(ByVal lpClassName As String, _
ByVal lpWindowName As String) As Long

lnRetVal = FindWindow("NOTES", vbNullString)
If lnRetVal = 0 Then
MsgBox "Application must be open", vbInformation, "App-Name"
Exit Sub
End If

I am having trouble adapting this to my specific situation in Excel 2003.
The computer is on a network with lots of other stuff running in the
background.