The code below will work in the Python interpreter but not as an External Method in Zope. It always chokes on the pickle.load line. Will the pickle module not work with Zope for some reason? import pickle def main(): dept='Sales' f=open('/WINNT/Profiles/bend/Desktop/licensing/'+dept+'c.txt','r') item=pickle.load(f) f.close() print item.name main() Benjamin L Derstine RealHelp eCollege.com 10200 A East Girard Avenue Denver, CO 80231 e-mail: bend@ecollege.com phone: 303-873-7400 fax: 303-873-7449 http://www.ecollege.com "The Leader in Online Education over the Internet"