tried the thisform.lockscreen. unfortunately the code in the middle produces lots of modal forms. the modal forms were a little screwy (refresh and focus problems) with the lockscreen. but your note reminded me that i was stepping through the code with the debugger. lockscreen, form activate, and the debugger do not seem to always get along nicely. just tried without the debugger and the modal forms seem to be behaving better.

thanks for the help - brenda