Kevin,

I went directly to your second suggestion, and inserted the code ahead of the first design object definition code. This seemed reasonable since it was labeled (general). Unfortunately, the form continued to open in design mode. Then it occurred to me that maybe instead of testing for FormsDesign and toggling FormsDesign if it were True, why not just set it to false. So I replaced the If...End If with ActiveDocument.FormsDesign = False. I was guessing of course, and haven't done any programming since the '70's, but it seemed logical. Unfortunately, that didn't work either. Assuming that your code is structured correctly and the parameter is, in fact, named FormsDesign and it is Boolean, I don't know why your code (or my variation) shouldn't have worked unless I put it in the wrong place. I tried to put the code elsewhere, but couldn't figure out how. So I am still sitting with the same problem....and no one else has suggested another solution. I do appreciate your willingness to help me.

Dan