when a portal is related to the master record with the "allow creation..." relationship, as the user enters the portal, the cursor automatically goes to a new portal row, in a blank record. how do u get rid of that, and a new record can only be created and "seen" when "new record" command is executed?

The only way I know of to do this would be to not allow the creation of related records. If you need the option of doing both, then create a second identical relationship but disallow the creation of records. Then use whichever relationship on the layout is relevant to what you want to accomplish.

You may even need to have two identical layouts, the only difference being the relationship used. I have done this is the past but it is a PIA when you have to make a change to the layout as you have to make the same change in the other layout as well.

i see... thanks~