I wrote a very simple VB routine to call an external program the reads
and writes info from/to the workbook. Prior to running the external
program, I want to present the user with a status dialog box ("Program
Executing. Standby...") so he's knows what is happening.

I created the status Form and view it with ShowModal = True and it
presented properly. However when I set ShowModal to False to allow
the external program call while the Form is visible, the Form canvas
was whited out. I thought maybe the Form was not given sufficient
time to paint prior to launching the program. But adding a small
delay between Form show and program launch did not fix the problem.

Any ideas?

Thanks Much,

SteveM