I've used the example you provided, and it works beautimously. However, I'm wondering if there's a better way to avoid having to repeat these same variable names four times as you can see below (once in the main program and three times in the nc_library.pm package). I have about twenty-five in all, so it would be nice not to have to constantly synchronize them (not to mention the fact that I've also got to put them in HTML::Template for a TMPL_VAR loop thingy). Any ideas? Thanks!

#my second_page.pl:
#!/usr/local/bin/perl5_8
use strict;
use warnings;
use nc_pswd;
use nc_library;
use vars  qw/
    $titlebar $rpt_no $rpt_lbl $rpt_name $rpt_asofdt $project $proj_re
+f
    $attr_dept $attr_descr $attr_award $attr_prog $attr_projpd $attr_f
+yr
    $attr_budgpd $attr_fund $attr_rate $attr_subclass $attr_status
    $attr_spec $attr_equip $attr_resp $attr_pi $rpt_type $from_act_tbl
    $from_bud_tbl /;
use HTML::Template;
use DBI;
use CGI ':standard';
use CGI::Carp qw(fatalsToBrowser);                     #remove for PRD
my $CGI = CGI->new;
#clear buffers and set up web page (required)
$|=1;
print $CGI->header;

&call_vars;

#and do other stuff....

# --------------------------------------------------------------- #

#my nc_library.pm
package nc_library;
use strict;
use warnings;
use Exporter ();
our @ISA = 'Exporter';
our ( $titlebar, $rpt_no, $rpt_lbl, $rpt_name, $rpt_asofdt, $project,
      $proj_ref, $attr_dept, $attr_descr, $attr_award, $attr_prog,
      $attr_projpd, $attr_fyr, $attr_budgpd, $attr_fund, $attr_rate,
      $attr_subclass, $attr_status, $attr_spec, $attr_equip,
      $attr_resp, $attr_pi, $rpt_type, $from_act_tbl, $from_bud_tbl );

our @EXPORT = qw/ call_vars commify dberror $CGI $spec_vars
                   $titlebar $rpt_no $rpt_lbl $rpt_name $rpt_asofdt
                   $project $proj_ref $attr_dept $attr_descr
                   $attr_award $attr_prog $attr_projpd $attr_fyr
                   $attr_budgpd $attr_fund $attr_rate $attr_subclass
                   $attr_status $attr_spec $attr_equip $attr_resp
                   $attr_pi $rpt_type $from_act_tbl $from_bud_tbl /;

sub call_vars
{
use CGI ':standard';
use CGI::Carp qw(fatalsToBrowser);                     #remove for PRD
my $CGI = CGI->new;
my $spec_vars = param('spec_vars');
(  $titlebar, $rpt_no, $rpt_lbl, $rpt_name, $rpt_asofdt, $project,
    $proj_ref, $attr_dept, $attr_descr, $attr_award, $attr_prog,
    $attr_projpd, $attr_fyr, $attr_budgpd, $attr_fund, $attr_rate,
    $attr_subclass, $attr_status, $attr_spec, $attr_equip, $attr_resp,
    $attr_pi, $rpt_type, $from_act_tbl, $from_bud_tbl)
= split /~/, $spec_vars;
return;
}

sub commify                          #Formats numbers (puts in commas)
{ 
local   $_ =  sprintf "%.2f",  shift @_;
1 while $_ =~ s/^(-?\d+)(\d\d\d)/$1,$2/;
return $_;
}

1;
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