>If you had created a form class with a minimal functionality, you could then have subclassed that form to make the first form you mentioned, and then subclassed the original form class for your new form - without all the added functionality. That way both forms would share common features, they'd both function without any surprises. The added advantage is if you change a setting in the subclasses, you can see the over-ridden properties by right-clicking on the Tabs of the property sheet and checking Non-Default Properties Only.

This gave me an idea that just like you can see the parent code in a vcx (the view parent code button in editor windows), it would be actually nice to see the parent's values of properties. Then I thought it would be nice to add that to PemEditor (from codeplex-vfpx-thor, whichever holds the flame nowadays) and... guess what, ctrl+click on a property gives you a text file with current value and values as set throughout the class hierarchy, upside down (i.e. current value on top, parent next, ur-parent on the bottom).

Nice :). So I don't have to write it myself.