Malcolm,

>Chad,
>
>Just got your email. Wow! I like the interface and the graphics look great.

I just sent you another email with a couple more pics to help explain my answers below.

>I've been thinking about a similar design for showing/hiding a navigation grid on the left side of an application but have struggled with how to present some of the visual effects I would like to acheive.
>
>I don't mean to monopolize your time and am grateful for your feedback so far so please don't feel compelled to respond to the following questions:
>
>1. When you say your coolbar slides out of the way, how does a user reactivate it?

There is a "Thumb" control (kind of like a pageframe tab) that appears along the left edge of the form that the user can click on to Show the DashBoard.

>2. Does your coolbar leave a slight edge exposed that a user can hover over or click on to slide it back into view?

No, the DB itself is completely offscreen, but the Thumb becomes visible at that point.

>3. Do your new containers also slide in and out of view (or on top of or underneath each other) in synch with your coolbar?

No, they just appear and disappear right before the DB slides or snaps out of the way. Only one container is instantiated at a time. The current one is destroyed before creating the next one. I've already considered the performance hit on this and as a future enhancement will likely have a property that allows you to set whether you want the containers to stay in memory (and get reused) or not.

>Thanks again for your help today. Your technique for pre-caching properly rendered images to VFP's image cache is brillant and I expect there are many areas where I can use this technique besides command buttons.

Your Welcome. Glad I could help.
Chad