My question originally revolved around the differences in 2.6 programs and VFP programs. I dislike having to ask for permission to do my task, but was used to the DOS/Win3.1 Foxapp. In getting ready to rewrite an older app I was looking for style guidance. I have some of the same needs for screen/process security but will attempt to set each secure area by a login security level. As a support technician for Clarify and SAP, and from supporting Peachtree Accounting at my current job, I believe that is the cleanest way. I just couldn't see having edit buttons for every process. To much to slow down the user.

>I am dealing with a similar issue in an app I am developing. I am using Visual Accountmate (VAM), an accounting package. In VAM's interface there is no edit button. However, I would like to control whether the user can make changes at all. If a form is open it is in editmode. However, I would like to implement a view only mode, so that users who are not authorized to make changes to a form/data can only view it. But I believe that this should be controlled via an 'open form dialog box', in the same manner that you can open, for example, a dbf in read only mode, by checking the read only checkbox when you open it via the open dialog. My intention would be to then have my control classes setup such that if the user chose a read only mode (or were forced to based upon their security setup) that a false would be returned from the control's when, or the enabled property would be set to false.
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>I am looking for suggestions on whether I should and/or how to implement this, and I am also wondering whether it would be a good solution for the original poster?
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>Just an FYI... Windows GUI standards are pretty clear on this. You should not have an edit button. The form should always be in Edit mode.
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>>>Whilst I agree that a separate edit button is not really necessary I think that the value of an edit button depends on the degree of computer competance of the end users of the software.
>>>We code systems which are used by people who often have limited computer skills. It is therefore quite useful, in our case, to force a click on an edit button. By doing so we can be sure that the users know exactly what they are doing.
>>>They get confused rather easily.
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>>>Phil.