Two experiments are reported investigating effects of bilateral letter cues (T and X) on covert and overt visual orienting. In the spatial correspondence conditions targets usually (p = 0.8) occurred on the same side as one of the letters (e.g. T). In the spatial translation conditions the bilateral letter cues were identical, and targets tended to occur on the right following one of kind of letter cue (e.g. T+T), and on the left following the other (e.g. X+X). Experiment 1 showed that the time course of covert orienting in the spatial correspondence condition was extremely rapid, and comparable to that observed in studies of reflexive orienting: response latencies were faster on valid than on invalid trials even at the shortest stimulus asynchronies (SOA's) between cue and target (0, 33, 66 ms). The time course of orienting in the spatial translation conditions was somewhat slower: a difference between valid and invalid trials was only observed at longer SOA's (150 ms or greater). Experiment 2 examined effects of peripherally presented spatial correspondence cues on the latency to initiate saccades to targets presented 5.5 deg to left or right of a central cross. Saccade latencies were shorter on valid than on invalid trials, and the magnitude of this effect did not vary as a function of SOA. At brief SOA's (0 - 100 ms) the advantage in saccade latency for valid over invalid trials was achieved without loss of directional accuracy. Implications of these results for views of visual orienting are discussed.