It looks like what I got here now is this basic script: property pReferenceDate : date "Wednesday, January 1, 2003 12:00:01 AM" set vDocNumber to ((current date) - pReferenceDate) as inches as string "The number is: " & vDocNumber The display dialog has been replaced with a string concatenation thus eliminating any coercion that might occur in the 10.4.6 version. Next, I've got four ways of compiling the reference date: 1. Modify by parts ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ set d to (current date) set day of d to 1 set year of d to 2003 set month of d to January set time of d to (0 * hours) + 1 2. Modify by parts, list version ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ tell (current date) to set {day, year, its month, day, time, d} to {1, 2003, January, 1, 0 * hours + 1, it} 3. Compile RefDate at runtime ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ property pRefDate : "1/1/2003 00:00:01" set pReferenceDate to date pRefDate 4. Compile RefDate at runtime v2 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ property pRefDate : "1 ja 03 0" set pReferenceDate to (date pRefDate) + 1 I'll send these in email and have them build the scripts. Let's see what happens. Thanks for the suggestions. -Duane Mitchell