I'll agree with Mark here- I've used this trick a few times. Take a look at how node previews are generated. -Peter ---------- From: "Mark Fredrickson" <mark.m.fredrickson@gmail.com> To: development@drupal.org Date: Fri, 30 Mar 2007 17:19:57 -0500 Subject: Re: [development] Retrieving form values during intial form rendering I think you want to research '#button' and '#after_build'. '#button' will send you form values without a full submission. '#after_build' will allow you to do something with the built values (node.module uses #after_build to prepend the rendered preview version) You may have to supply a '#name' element for your button so that it doesn't get stuck in 'op'. I'm a little rusty on that point. Cheers, -Mark