Eric,
thanks for your help...(I've been eavesdropping!)
for some reason, I am not seeing "user objects" in the list. (in "toggle
user datasets")
I have copies of user_obj.tdf in the Guide 8 folder and also the Guide
8/text/folder.
any ideas? I do notice that there is not a file called
user_obj.nam...should there be??
here is my user_obj.tdf file:

file user_obj.nam
title User Objects
RA H 35 2
RA M 38 2
RA S 41 5
de d 49 3
de m 53 2
de s 57 4
text 5 30
~b 5 30 %s\n
~r 35 12 RA (^J2000^): %s\n
~r 49 13 dec: %s\n
epoch 2000
type sc14;f3;0,-40;-35,20;35,20;c13;e0,0,40;c15;
shown 0
end

thanks in advance,
Randy