VB and an Excel Spreadsheet

I'm writing a program in VB6 that accesses an Excel spreadsheet for storing,
manipulating and printing out data. Here's what's happening:

First, consider the following code, as copied from a recorded Excel macro:

Range("A1:F56").Select
Selection.Copy
Sheets("LastDate").Select
Range("A1").Select
ActiveSheet.Paste

I recorded that macro in an effort to troubleshoot the following from the
program:

TimeSheet.Range("A1:F56").Copy
LastSheet.Select
LastSheet.Range("A1").Select
LastSheet.Range("A1").PasteSpecial

This code WORKS. . .

. . . IF I have the spreadsheet open at the same time, the code runs without
error. HOWEVER, if the spreadsheet is closed (and mind you, everything else
STILL works okay), I get the following:

Runtime Error '1004':
Select method of Range class failed.

Selecting "Debug" highlights the third line (LastSheet.Range("A1").Select)
as containing the offending code.

I'd greatly appreciate ANY help.

Dale Boyer
boyers6@home.com
dale.boyer@faa.gov