Groovy, good old DOS. The irony is that many DB programs have gone back to
using command prompts. I never used the command prompt in SQL Server
7--pre.NET. I recall using one dot, .\ but never had the opportunity of using
double-dot. Thanks for letting me know; it worked perfectly.

I should say that when I initially put your code into my function it worked
fine, but as I got into my function deeper, I could never get the search
folder to change.

First, here's a little explanation of what I'm trying to do, then the code
that doesn't accomplish it all:

(1) From a sub, I pass file name criteria (strFile = "201_P05*.*", for
example) and the path in which a certain instance of it is found.
(2) Search for instances of the file criteria within the folder.
(3) If more than one instance of the file criteria is found in a folder,
then the files in this folder are the ones I want to work with and blnStop is
set to true and the looping stops.
(4) On the other hand, if only one file in the searched folder fits the
search criteria, move up one folder level (attempted to do this per your
demonstration of ".."  but it didn't move to another folder).

This is my code:

Function umRefineIt(strFile As String, strPath As String) As String
   Dim strData As String, dirArray() As String, strFiles As String
   Dim intCnt As Integer, intFiles As Integer
   Dim blnStop As Boolean
   'declare initial size of array variable (shrink later)
   ReDim dirArray(1000)
   With Application.FileSearch
       .NewSearch
       .LookIn = strPath
       .SearchSubFolders = True
       .FileName = strFile
       .Execute
       intFiles = .FoundFiles.Count
       While .Execute(SortBy:=msoSortByFileName,
SortOrder:=msoSortOrderAscending) > 0 And blnStop = False
           If intFiles > 1 Then
               blnStop = True
               For intCnt = 1 To intFiles
                   If InStr(.FoundFiles(intFiles), "grading") = 0 Then
intFiles = intFiles + 1
               Next intCnt
           End If
           intCnt = 0
           .NewSearch
           .LookIn = strPath
           .LookIn = ".."
           .SearchSubFolders = True
           .FileName = strFile
           .Execute
       Wend
   End With
   .
   .
   .
   umRefineIt = strNewFile
End Function

I tried commenting out .NewSearch and changing .SearchSubFolders to false,
all without the desired results. Give it your magic touch, Helmut (if you see
this) or anyone who can graciously help me crack the code.