I opened the VFP 6.0 Help file one day and was greeted by the message "This page provides potentially unsafe information to an ActiveX control. Your current security settings prohibit running controls in this manner. As a result, this page may not display correctly." Since I know VFP uses HTML Help, which is based on Internet Explorer, I wasn't totally taken aback, but it was still a surprise.

I tried some other HTML Help files (including the one for my book, Hacker's Guide to Visual FoxPro 6.0). Sure enough, all did the same thing. In fact, some not only gave me that message on startup, but repeated it every time I navigated to a new page.

I recently installed some new software and guessed it had messed with my IE security settings, so I checked those, but they seemed reasonable. Nonetheless, I tried tweaking them, but nothing helped.

So I went fishing on the Microsoft Knowledge Base. The one article I found that mentioned this error linked it to a COMCAT.DLL problem. The problem the article described didn't apply in my case, but it got me thinking.

Then I remembered a new tool on the MSDN Web site (http://msdn.microsoft.com). The DLL Help Database is designed just for situations like mine. It's available by choosing "DLL Help Database" from the Resources item on the main MSDN toolbar. When you get there, enter the name of the DLL you suspect is giving you trouble. You then get a list of all versions of that DLL, and can find out which products install them.

With a little exploration, I found that something had replaced COMCAT.DLL on my system with a much older version. When I replaced it with the more recent version that should have been there, the problem went away.

Most of us have either been in DLL Hell ourselves or had users there more than once. By putting the information we need to diagnose problems in one, easily updated place, Microsoft just made our jobs a little easier. Kudos.

Integrate Office with VFP
I needed to solve the problem with the HTML Help files because I've been practically living in the VBA Help files for Office products this fall and winter. One of my projects has been a new book. As I write this, it's nearly done.

This book is a departure for me. Written with Della Martin, it's called Microsoft Office Automation with Visual FoxPro (Hentzenwerke). As the title suggests, the focus is on automating the Microsoft Office applications using Visual FoxPro. (The book grew out of the automation experiences I described in the January 1999 Editor's View.) As a result, I've spent a tremendous amount of time exploring Visual Basic for Applications. The Help files are an important resource.

Della, my co-author, is a member of the team that built JFAST, the logistics application that helped move troops and equipment for every US military deployment since Desert Shield. (See the June 1998 issue.) Her role on the team is Automation -- she wrote the automated briefing module. Della shared some of her hard-won knowledge in the November 1997 issue.

Changes
A Greek philosopher once said, "Change alone is unchanging." After more than two years of putting together the monthly Advisor Tips column, Contributing Editor Steve Sawyer needed a change. The good news is that, without the commitment of a monthly column, Steve should be able to share his own wisdom with us more often in articles.

Starting this month, Advisor Tips is edited by new Contributing Editors Ceil Silver and Ed Leafe. They've ably introduced themselves in the column, so I won't repeat their credentials here. I've known Ceil and Ed for a long time and have a great deal of respect for both of them. Of course, they need your help to fill the column, so keep your tips, tricks, and traps coming to FoxProTips@Advisor.com.

Some of you may have noticed that two of our long-time columnists are sporting new titles. Andrew Ross MacNeill and Christof Lange joined our group of Contributing Editors. Congratulations to all four new Contributing Editors.

I've saved the biggest change for last. Over the last few years, the world of application development has changed dramatically. For one person to be an expert on all its facets has become an impossible task. In order to keep FoxPro Advisor's coverage of the development world as broad as possible, starting next issue, rather than having a single editor responsible for all articles, we'll have a team of technical editors, including me. We'll announce the rest of the team shortly on Advisor.com/FoxPro, and next month right here.