Hi John,

>If you blindly follow MS way of defining apps, all data on a form is edit on demand...meaning that almost any field can be directly edited without having to click an "Edit" control. This has always disturbed me as I have specialized in financial systems where an "ooops" undetected and committed could cost millions.
>
>In keeping with this thought process, I have always followed an "edit on request" interface where a good ol' edit button needs to be pressed before controls are enabled....but this has caused it's own share of mixed metaphors and inconsistancies in interfaces.
>
>Any general thoughts on this????

UGGGH! Pardon me while I climb up here on my soap box...

I'm not much of a fan of the "press the edit button first" technique. What I do is allow the user to begin editing right away. In the Interactive change of all my controls, I call a method which disables the Add, Delete, Exit, and any other buttons which shouldn't be avaialble while you're editing. The only buttons left enabled are the Save and Undo. That way, they either save the changes or dump 'em.

Just my two cents....

Now does someone wanna give me a hand down off this soapbox?