Changes Not Showing Until Long Executing Methods Complete

I currently have a method which calls a number of other methods:

sth like:

Code:

function myMainMethod()
{
smallMethod1();

[Code]....

If I try to Change the color of the text in a button, right before the call to smallMethod1();, changes will not take effect untill the end of smallMEthod4() execution.

Im using IE8 and calls to smallMethod1,2,3,4 are actually calls to methods from an activeX library.

I tried changing the style on the button and then making the call to "myMainMethod()" on a different thread: like

Code:
setTimeout("myMainMethod()",1);

I managed to get things working, it did change before running the methods,.. but what happend was that smallMethods()1,2,3,4 started giving me errors,..

Also If I add an alert right after changing the style things seem to work,.. and the button changes styles before calling all the other methods...

Sth like:

Code:

function myMainMethod()
{
changeButtonColorStyle();
alert('Hi');
smallMethod1();

[Code]....

Also is there a way to create the same effect that the 'alert' does, but without showing an alert window,..? Kind of: "execute everything up to here, and then carry on...."