Thanks to all for the input and suggestions regarding my questions. I will be getting some other Perl books and begin learning the language. I have managed to solve my most immediate text substitution needs via a combo of BBEdit and Applescript. However, I am sure I will need to learn Perl to accomplish other tasks I will be addressing in the next few months. Thanks again! Regards, Eric Mings Ph.D. ***** Want to unsubscribe from this list? ***** Send mail with body "unsubscribe" to mac-perl-request@iis.ee.ethz.ch