In addition to Sergeys pos:

things that are low in zOrder are
initiated first
painted first

destroyed last.

So, a object that is set in the background in design time will have a low zorder and will be initiated first. Just check the properties window, the combo will reflect zorder.

You can imagine the painting order as:
An object in the background will be painted first and any object with higher order will paint over it.

Note that the zOrder defines the loading / opening order of CA's in a DataEnvironment too!

If objects overlap and the top object is transparent you will see the "lower", but a click will select the top. TAB and [CTRL]+TAB will still work because it simple loops all controls.

.ZORDER(1) will place an object to the back.

So your problem looks like as if multiple layers of transparent containers are used.

HTH
Agnes

>I hope I can explain this clearly enough........
>
>We have a BaseFrom which is a form with some standard controls
> Help Button
> Exit Button
> Treeview
> etc
>
>I've inherited a form (frmFilter) based on this class. The Init method of frmFilter does an AddObject("oFilter',...) and adds a sub-classed container object.
>
>The init method then does

>this.oFilter.zOrder(1)

>
>after which the mouse can no longer be used to activate the controls inside the container. I think the keyboard still works (CTRL-TAB, TAB, etc) but I haven't fully verified this.
>
>I we remove the zOrder() statement, the controls in the container are active, but the form's original controls can no longer be activated by the mouse.
>
>Can somebody please enlighten me about zOrder and what, if anything, can be done to correct this condition (short of a redesign of the form - I know how I would do that)
>
>
>TIA...........Rich
>
>VFP 8 SP 1