>>>That's normal windows behavior, I can tell you that much, it's the same in other apps too. The apps usually get around it by:
>>>
>>>1) Using a combo
>>>2) Using a textbox to input search chars
>>>
>>>I guess you could use MOUSE CLICK to automate it in vfp, maybe...
>>
>>Hmmm. I did a quick test case and it seemed to work for me. Used a RowSourceType of Value and typed in some entries into RowSource.
>
>Could well be, I haven't tried it lately, and don't recall what rowsource. But I have a some admin tools, for example, that do not work unless they receive a click first, so it's a more widespread problem, at least.
>
>I just checked vfp with value as you say, and it works fine - the first problem though is the user (or me :) can't tell where the focus is with a listbox, so you almost have to click in it anyway, practically speaking...

Saw that too. But that can be overcome by setting the listbox Value property to an item in the list to select it.