We have developed a practical heating holder for the field-emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM, JSM-6000F) to study and apply the specimen heated and electron beam induced conductivity. The design is described in detail. A surface temperature up to 943 K is achieved. The temperature fluctuation is less than 0.5&percent;/h at about 20 min after the heating up to 943 K, and the thermal drift is suppressed to less than 5 nm/min up to 873 K. The temperature of the observation area is proportional to the input power of the heater up to about 700 K. The charging on a nonconducting surface such as porous pipe glass can be prevented at a surface temperature above about 673 K. It is demonstrated that this is useful to the high resolution observations of the nonconducting surfaces. ©1997 American Institute of Physics.