I could really use help with 2 items.

First, I am trying to find out how to use the open file
dialog, how to reference it, initiate it, etc.

second im looking for some kind of control that i can use
in a form that will allow a user to preview a selected
file, hopefuly teh control would be smart enough to
understand .txt, .rtf, .doc, and .htm formats.

I sincerely appreciate any and all help on this matter.

Woody

Open the components dialog, scroll down to Microsoft Common Dialog control, place a check
in the box next to it, close the dialog, drop one on your form, while it's still selected,
hit F1. Help should open up showing all of the info on that control.

doc support is gonna cost you some money. htm can be handled by the webbrowser control.
text and rtf can be handled by the richtextbox control.

--
Ken Halter - MS-MVP-VB - http://www.vbsight.com
Please keep it in the groups..

Hi

you could look at opening your file in ms word - this handles all the
formats u mention and is fairly straight forward to do -

Silk