>1. Can the pointer only be changed within a form method or is there a way to change it over the main application screen?

_screen.MousePointer= 2

>2. If I change the pointer to a defined shape (like the houglass) when a button is pushed, the pointer retains that shape when move over buttons on the form.

Hmmm, I don't see that behavior. VFP7, anyways. Are you using a framework that mgiht take care of this? Perhaps it only does it for the hour glass or maybe not customs? Seems likely...

>However, if I change the pointer to a custom icon shape, the pointer only shows that shape when the mouse is not over the form's buttons. Is there a way to keep the custom shape all the time?

Thats the standard behavoir. What you might want to do is create a method of the form that sets, and resets the MousePointer propeerty for every object on the form. If you need help doing that, let me know, but it should be pretty straigforward.