thanks for that, but it still dosen't solve my problem. getting the objects to stay where i want them isn't a problem, its getting the screen to go to the same coordinates every time you run it, no matter where you happen to have scrolled to in the screen when it is not running. so for example if you have objects in an area you want to see when the program is running, but then whilst it is not running you scroll around to a blank area of the screen and run it, you just get the blank area. the auto centre function does not correct this problem, if i have a screen that i have made to fit exactly in the viewable area, this feature (auto centre) does not nesercerally re-align it correctly so i end up with bits of my screen.