Jane,

Put the setfocus in the Init even of your form. The load event executes before any of the controls on the form are created.

Are you trying to clear the screen or the form? ACTIVATE SCREEN followed by CLEAR should clear the screen.

I like Will Hentzen's book which is called something like Programming with Microsoft Visual FoxPro 3.0. Almost everything in the book still applies in VFP 5.0.

>Thanks everyone. This instant messaging is great. I have a few more questions.
>
>1) The line of code that was causing trouble was in the Load of the Form when I said "thisform.txtname.setfocus. It said txtname was an unknown member.
>
>2) How do I clear the screen a:) when the form first comes up; b) after a record is written. I have a thisform.refresh but that doesn't seem to do anything.
>
>3) Any suggestions for some reading material to help me get started. I'm a long-time Clipper programmer..
>
>Thanks.