Hello everybody, I hope you can help

I have a dialog box (user form) triggered when my publication opens. On it
are a couple of buttons (one "Start" which calls a sub named "Portrait", the
other "cancel" which hides the dialog and exits)

All is well and it works perfectly. But if I try to run the macro using
tools/run macro, the dialog appears but the buttons do not function?

secondly, I have used application.screenupdating=false to try and stop
'flickering' as the macro is running, but this seems to have no effect. If I
did get this to function, is there a way to communicate with the user to
show progress (eg status bar or similar).

Finally is there a way to place a button (non printing) on my publication to
run the macro, or do I have to include it on a menu/toolbar?

Thanks very much