Using FPW 2.6a under Win95, I can't seem to get BROWSE PREFERENCE to work.
Here's the BROWSE statement:
   BROWSE PREFERENCE BROWDEAL ;
   FIELDS ;
     DG_CNUM :H='Contract #',;
     COMMDITY=IIF(!EMPTY(COMMODITY) AND
SEEK('POS'+LEFT(COMMODITY,2),'CODES'), ;
      CODES.CVAL,'') :H='Commodity' :15, ;
     WEIGHT ,;
     SELLER=IIF(SEEK(DG_SLRNUM,'CUSTS'),CUSTS.SHORTNAME,'') ;
      :12 :H='Seller', ;
     BUYER=IIF(SEEK(DG_BYRNUM,'CUSTS'),CUSTS.SHORTNAME,'') ;
      :12 :H='Buyer', ;
     SHDT=SUBSTR(DTOS(SHIP_DATE),5,2)+'/'+LEFT(DTOS(SHIP_DATE),4) :H='Ship
Month',;
     PRICE, ;
     CTRDT=DG_DATE :H='Contract Date' ;
    WINDOW VDEALS ;
    REST NODELETE NOEDIT NOAPPEND &FONTSTYLE

My understanding of the way PREFERENCE is supposed to work is that the user
can change column widths and the order of columns in the browse, and these
changes will be preserved in the preference record in the resource file.
The next time the user executes the browse, the browse should open with
field widths and column order as they were when the browse window was last
closed with CTRL-W.  This does not appear to be the case with this BROWSE
statement.

RESOURCE is ON, and I see the preference record in the resource file.  The
resource file is not write protected, and the READONLY field is .F.  Each
user has their own resource file.

It appears that user changes to column widths and/or column orders are
preserved once in a blue moon, and randomly, at that.  I was able to click
and drag to move the PRICE column to be the second column from the left, and
that stuck so hard I couldn't move it anywhere else at all.  I'd click and
drag to move it to a different column position (which it did), but after I
closed the Browse window with CTRL-W and re-executed the browse, the PRICE
column was back in the second-from-the-left column position.  Deleting the
preference record from the resource file had no effect, until I packed the
resource file and really got rid of it.  Only then did the PRICE column move
back to second-from-the-right, as defined in the browse statement above.

Am I incorrect in my assumption about how BROWSE PREFERENCE works?

What can I do to give my end users the ability to set the field widths and
column order in the above browse, and have their setting preserved so that
subsequent times they execute the browse, the browse window opens with the
field widths and column order from their previous execution of that browse?