>IMHO, by design - the active control is by definition the control with focus, no matter how many layers of containers, pageframes etc. are between the control and 'thisform'.

I do not know. First, the grid that is a container, at least conceptually does not show the same behaviour (i.e. it can be recognised as an activecontrol). Second, we loose information hiding and polymorfism, as we have to identify candidates of activecontrol individually, in order to be recognized by thisform.keypress, and third, what is the point of having an activecontrol property for the container if it points to the same control as thisform.activecontrol.

As for putting code in the txtboxes of the columns of grids, you would do that only if all other alternatives have been explored, and it is nearly impossible at the abstract level, as you do not know how many columns you are dealing with.

Anyway, Barabara, thanks for you comments.

Marc