Further my my previous post, after u mentionned IE specifically w/r to limitations, I went and tried a gecko browser and it performed beautifully. All of the troubles I cited vanished.
In my particular case - for the timebeing at least - I can enjoin my users to stay way from IE, so my sense of urgency is relieved, and I can live with the status quo. For that I thank you very much.
That said, it functions miserably in IE, and I beleive it is in everyone's interest that you either fix it in IE, or disable it in IE. But whatever you do, please maintain it for the browsers for which it works well. Clealy, if you can make it work in IE, it will be quite powerful indeed, will make your customers very pleased, and give you an edge over competitors who have not yet achieved it (such as one competitor I know of that charges almost double).
Thanks again so much.
Best, Stuart