well I did what you said, I use the strtofile command and that what i get
‱††⌣‱††‱††
I use the fputs command and that what I get
1 ##1
this is what i expected to find as I wrote rhe variable filled with this.value and after '##' the this.value itself.
Can you tell me why the strto file gives me that line ?
Moreover, I tried placing a doevents command before the seek but without changes (I don't know what doevent is, to be honest) and I placed a messagebox soon after i fill the textbox.value which displays the values and the value is right and I GET NO ERROR !!!!!!

>I think Marcia is on the right track with doevents,
>but I'ld also attack it from the other side:
>
>something like
>

>local lcMyTemp
>lcMytemp = this.value
>strtofile(m.lcMytemp + furtherChecksYouLike(), "myProt.txt", .t.)
>wait wind m.lcMyTemp + " in current seek" nowait
>if seek(m.lcMytemp, ....)
>   wait clear
>else
>   wait clear
>endif
>

>
>and not running under debugger...
>
>HTH
>
>thomas