The ConnectionString property tells ADO how to connect to the datasource. Click the ellipse to display the ConnectionString dialog. We are going to build the string ourselves so select Use Connection String and click the Build button to display the Data Link Properties dialog. The first choice to make is what data provider are we going to use to get the data. To access Excel we use the Microsoft Jet OLEDB 4.0 Provider, select it and click Next. The next piece is what are we going to connect to. In this case we want to access an Excel file. Use the Browse button and find an Excel file on your system or use Forecast.xls provided in the ADOExcel.zip file. Before we can test the connection we need to enter an Extended Property to the connection string. Click OK to go back the ConnectionString dialog and type 'Extended Properties=Excel 8.0;' without the quotes at the end of the connection string (remember, all ConnectionString entries must be separated by semi-colons. This tells ADO that we need Excel support and use the type library associated with Excel 8.0. Go ahead and click Build again and then Test the connection. If you get Test Connection Succeeded, you did everything right. Close the ConnectionString dialog. The last property to set is the CommandText property.