In a previous incarnation, Rod Stephens was a mathematician. During his stint at MIT, he discovered the joys of algorithms and graphics, and has been programming professionally ever since. During his career, he has worked on an eclectic assortment of applications spanning such topics as repair dispatch, telephone switch programming, tax processing, and training for professional football players. Rod has written more than a dozen books that have been translated into half a dozen different languages, and more than 200 magazine articles covering Visual Basic, Visual Basic for Applications, Delphi, and Java. He is a columnist for Hardcore Visual Basic. Rod's popular website, VB Helper ( http: //www.vb-helper.com) receives several million hits per month and contains more than a thousand pages of tips, tricks, and example code for Visual Basic programmers.