>Thanks - I got around it by making it the first item on the form, not ideal but it works.

Which means it receives focus... maybe just the .setfocus() from the form's .show() may have worked. I agree, relying on instantiation order is not healthy.

>>>Can anyone think of a reason why the olecalendar control on my form doesnt display when the form initially loads? If I click on the area of the form where the control is it pops up and is fine, but not displaying at the start is a problem.
>>
>>Ah, one of those quirky ones - I have no clue, or at least no sure-fire way... you can try to do a few things in code - in form's .init(), .show() or even .activate() - whatever gets called just once when the form has become visible:
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>>olecalendar.visible=.t.
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>>olecalendar.zorder(0)
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>>olecalendar.setfocus()
>>
>>Even raising an event may work... try them one by one. Good luck.