>seeing as there is no MouseEnter, or MouseLeave method for forms, can anyone suggest a workaround. i want to do something different for menus - using a .gif that changes when the mouse rolls over it and, hopefully, opening a small form next to it containing more .gifs that change the same way. i need the new little 'menu form' to release when the mouse leaves it...any ideas?

You can detect when the mouse moves from form to form (or another app) by running a timer and testing the hWnd of the Window owning the coordinates that the mouse is occupying; this will require a couple of API calls to achieve, and a timer to fire at a fairly frequent interval (about every 20ms or so as to not appear jerky.)