I began the block with the various package loading statements (ended by colons), then I added the the printf statement and did not supress the output. Unfortunately I still have the problem. This is how the inside of the block looks: > with(VectorCalculus): > with(plots): > printf("Initialization Complete"); Then when I collapse the block, I get this: with(VectorCalculus):with(plots): Initialization Complete Thanks a lot for your help.