John, Thank you for your response.
Typically we only need one instance up at one time, although we do not prohibit more than one currently. The entire form is customized, from the number of pages, down to the individual fields.

There was another delimna to using this approach, but I do think I will play with it a bit more.

Meanwhile, do you have any comments about the idea outlined below? Do you think it is feasible to compile a form in an exe per the methods suggested?

>Nancy ----- How many instances of this form are up at any one time? If only one, then you could instance a generic version at app startup (with visible set FALSE) then just set those customized properties as appropriate and Form.Show()...
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>>We have a very nice instantiated form in our application which allows the form to be customized per the user definitions in the datadictionary. It is also a very complicated form with multiple spinners, multiple pages, and 10-30 tables in parent/child relationships.
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>>The customers love it, but we would like it to load faster. Everytime the form is opened, the entire form is instantiated. One thought is to create the form scx from the data dictionary - compile it so to speak - whenever the data dictionary is changed. Each time the form is loaded, it will not need to be instantiated, as it will already appear to be a defined form.
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>>We realize that we cannot compile a form from an exe - but if the methods were all predefined - we could conceivable copy those compiled methods to any new methods instantiated from the original.
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>>I am wondering if anyone has had any experience doing something similar? Do you know if the compiled code is hardcoded to specific objects- or if it would be transferable to a new object. As an example, the valid method for a given field - if we copied that compiled code to another record for a new field of same type - would it transfer to that new field? Can you think of any other concerns?
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>>Any comment/suggestions would be helpful.
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>>Thanks much,
>>Nancy