All the supposed shortcuts, using this.whatever, cause errors. So I added ThisForm.PageFrame1.Page1.Details.SetFocus to my form's Activate method. That does cause the first cell in the grid to become active as soon as the form loads. But the record is still read-only... But I will leave this in place, as I do want the grid to be active upn entry...

I noticed you used SetFocus() - I did not add the parentheses since they were not needed with Refresh. But just so I learn something, is it legit to follow a method with parentheses?

So why does adding a field from the grid's ControlSource to the form (not the grid) make the grid no longer read-only? The $64,000 question :>)

Thanks for all your time and patience Naomi!