>I need to define variables early on in a form which are available to every procedure/event in the form, but I want to protect them from multiple instances of the form. What should I do? Do I have to define them all as properties of the form?

Yep, use properties if they are going to be used in more than 1 method or event of the form anyway.

>Also when I close a form with Thisform.Release I can still see an object in the locals window. ie. name = formname, value = .NULL. and type = O. Am I doings something wrong?

Nope, thats normal behavior.