Like most win95 programs CFT uses 'windows within windows' for example in the Edit Individual screen, clicking on an event line opens another window as I would expect. In the upper right corner of the windows are the usual three 'buttons': min, max and close. The close button seems to have the same function as the close symbol at the far left of the tool bar, are they different? The maximum button works as expected and the minimize button places a bar at the bottom of the screen as expected. However if a window is minimized, clicking anywhere on the screen just causes the machine to beep with every mouse click; the program seems to 'lock up' Have I downloaded a faulty copy of the CFT program? Minimising windows in other programs does not cause the program to 'lock up' like CFT so I don't think it's my computer. Can anyone explain this? Mike

At 07:11 PM 4/3/01 +0000, you wrote: >Like most win95 programs CFT uses 'windows within windows' for example in >the Edit Individual screen, clicking on an event line opens another >window as I would expect. In the upper right corner of the windows are the >usual three 'buttons': min, max and close. >The close button seems to have the same function as the close symbol at the >far left of the tool bar, are they different? >The maximum button works as expected and the minimize button places a bar >at the bottom of the screen as expected. >However if a window is minimized, clicking anywhere on the screen just >causes the machine to beep with every mouse click; the program seems to >'lock up' > >Have I downloaded a faulty copy of the CFT program? Minimising windows in >other programs does not cause the program to 'lock up' like CFT so I don't >think it's my computer. Can anyone explain this? No faulty program. That's the way it is. An understanding of the "types" of windows in Windows might help. There are basically 3 types of windows: 1. An "application" window 2. A "document" window (either MDI or SDI) 3. A "dialog" window The application window is the main window - think of it is that large one that surrounds any program. Many applications then allow you to open one or more "documents" within the application window. In MS-Word for example you can open more than one document. This is called an MDI application (multiple document interface). A program like CFT-Win which only allows the opening of "one" document (or database) is called an SDI (single document interface). Most other windows are considered "dialog" windows. For example, in MS-Word you click on Tools Menu - Options and it opens a dialog. Thus a dialog window is NOT a child MDI window - meaning that you cannot switch to another document when you are in a dialog window. You normally can't do a thing until you close that dialog window. In CFT-Win I have broken some standard rules. In most applications a "dialog' window will NOT have a minimize and maximize button. In fact - most will not allow you to resize the window. But I wanted to allow you to resize the Edit Individual and Edit Event windows (which are really dialog windows). In fact, I wanted to allow you to maximize these windows to fill the monitor since on a smaller monitor with the lowest screen resolution you won't see much if you can't maximize it. CFT-Win is also a Database program - more comparable to say MS-Access than it would be to MS-Word. In MS-Word you can open multiple documents and switch between them. In MS-Access you can really only open one database - although it does allow you to open multiple copies of the program. MS-Access allows you to also openmore than one view into a database - thus creating the MDI interface. You basically open various tables and on the Window Menu switch between them. CFT-Win is an SDI program - single database and even single view into the database. In the very early stages of veta 3 I messed with MDI and never could get it working smoothly. CFT-Win is NOT comparable to MS-Access in that it really is more complicated than MS-Access - in the way it actually is updating multiple internal tables when you edit a person or event. So thus, I did away with the complexities of any type of MDI interface. Probably rambled on more than necessary - but the answer is that the program is working the way I wrote it to work. Ira ------------------------------------------------ Mr. Ira J. Lund E-mail: [email protected] Web: http://www.cf-software.com Cumberland Family Software, 385 Idaho Springs Road, Clarksville TN 37043