Here's my take on it ... It uses the MSComDlg.CommonDialog ActiveX control that - I think - gets installed and licensed with Office97+. Not everyone has this control exposed at the COM Automation level. Maybe that's why this guy went "under the covers" and called it throught the Windows API ...

code:

---

break on

$Filename = OpenCommonDialog("Excel Files (*.xls)|*.xls|All files (*.*)|*.*", "Open Excel File", "c:\", "*.xls", 0)

?"file = " $Filename

exit

function OpenCommonDialog($Filter,$Title,$Directory,$Extension,$FileMustExist)
 $OpenCommonDialog = ""
 $Dialog = CreateObject("MSComDlg.CommonDialog")
 if $Dialog
  $Dialog.Filter = $Filter
  $Dialog.DialogTitle = $Title
  $Dialog.InitDir = $Directory
  $Dialog.Extension = $Extention
  $Dialog.MaxFileSize = 128
  If $FileMustExist 
   $Dialog.Flags = 4096
  EndIf
  $Dialog.ShowOpen()
  $OpenCommonDialog = $Dialog.Filename
 endif
endfunction

---

-Shawn