OK, but, I have a fair bit of infrastructure built up in this form,
mainly for supporting user configurable preferences, and I decided to
take some of it out but leave some of it in.  The stuff I have left in
-- anything related to my Globals object -- should be self
explanatory.

setTimeout method
<URL:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/workshop/author/dhtml/reference/methods/setTimeout.asp
/>

--- script.js ---

var Globals = {  ... stuff ... }
var oTaskPane = null;
var gfInitialized = false;

function InitTaskPane()
{
    if (null == oTaskPane)
    {
        if (null == XDocument.View)
            return;
        oTaskPane = XDocument.View.Window.TaskPanes.Item(0);
    }

    if (oTaskPane.HTMLDocument.readyState != "complete")
    {
        return;
    }

    gfInitialized = true;
}

function GetTaskPaneWindow()
{
    if (oTaskPane)
    {
        if (Globals.HasFullTrust)
            return oTaskPane.HTMLWindow;
        else
            return oTaskPane.HTMLDocument.parentWindow;
    }
    return null;
}

// Give the click handler for the Refresh button a valid JScript name
// so that it can also be called from script.
RefreshData = function Refresh::OnClick()
{
    XDocument.Query();

    if (Globals.Preferences.RefreshPeriodically == "T" &&
Globals.Preferences.RefreshInterval)
        GetTaskPaneWindow().StartAutoRefresh();
}

--- taskpane.htm ---

            var XDocument = null;
            var iRefreshTimer = null;
            var fAutoRefresh = false;

            function Init()
            {
                // Save a reference to the XDocument
object.
                XDocument =
window.external.Window.XDocument;

                // Set the initial state of the task
pane contents.   
                XDocument.Extension.InitTaskPane();
            }

            function StartAutoRefresh()
            {
                var iInterval =
XDocument.Extension.Globals.Preferences.RefreshInterval;

                if (isNaN(Number(iInterval)))
                    return false;

                if (iRefreshTimer)
                    clearTimeout(iRefreshTimer);
                iRefreshTimer =
setTimeout("Refresh()", iInterval * 1000);
                fAutoRefresh = true;

                return true;
            }

            function StopAutoRefresh()
            {
                if (iRefreshTimer)
                    clearTimeout(iRefreshTimer);
            }

            function PauseAutoRefresh()
            {
                fAutoRefresh = false;
            }

            function ResumeAutoRefresh()
            {
                fAutoRefresh = true;
            }

            function Refresh()
            {
                if (fAutoRefresh)

XDocument.Extension.RefreshData();
            }

--
Please post questions to the newsgroup; everyone benefits.
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
Sample code subject to http://www.microsoft.com/info/cpyright.htm