James,

If the controls don't have any attributes that "require" you to have them on the form at design time, you can AddObject() them in the form init, and have full control over the instantiation order.

>The real problem, however, is the lack of direct control over firing order. I have not used another OOP language that does not have such control. This is a grave deficiency in VFP and needs to be addressed by M$. I doubt it will be, however, unless users raise a fuss about it.