>>>>Rich,
>>>>
>>>>I don't think Don needed an advocate. You also missed my point.
>>>
>>>You sounded whinney and petulant about the stars and I chose to address that issue. I didn't miss the point you were making. I chose not to address it.
>>
>>To be fair, I don't think N mentioned stars - just an acknowledgment of the trouble she went through to help.
>
>I did mention in the second message, which I probably should not have.
>
>>I'd be mortified if I'd asked a Q and had not let every responder know I appreciated their efforts. I think it's rude not to.
>
>That's the point :)

Gratious me!!!! I'm going to make this one final post on this thread and I hope that will be the end of it.

Naomi - Thank you for your effort. I certainly didn't intend to slight you. You have helped me several times in the past and I hope I have adequately acknowledged those time. In this instance Sergey's suggestion was first and more on target than yours so I used it and moved on. I may have (in fact did) fail to recognize you, sorry. BUT I also take offense to your statement that this is "usual" practice. I certainly hope that is not the case.

Others - I also note with some concern the seemingly competitive nature of some for the so called recognition or "stars" associated with supposedly helpful responses. I don't know if there is some actual financial benefit to collecting stars or if they help you obtain MVP status or something else, but frankly why should it matter? Aren't we all here to learn and share in support of our favorite programming tool? Some players here have specifically asked that I not post stars even when their answer is the best.

I have been working with VFP for a long time although I am far from a professional programmer. I use it to build my own personal tools and to help with things around the office. I'm not very familiar with VB but have leveraged my VFP experience to recently take a stab at NET. I give that as background only so that I can further state that as I have looked for help around the web for various things, I have tried many different forums and have found UT to be the absolute best BY FAR. This is largly because of the high quality of skilled people here and the patient tolerance they have for stupid/obvious questions from beginners, or those like me who have never had any formal training. It's obvious that they (like me) love the VFP product and it is that love of the product that carry it beyond the MS "termination" date. So, for all who care to listen, please don't spoil it by loosing sight of our real goal. AND thanks to all who have helped me over the years with lots of simple questions. - Don