If you want to control the functionality within the form, then you will need to handle the EditingStateChanged event of the business object. If the stat is Idle, then change the controls to ReadOnly, otherwise, set them to editable. However, if you want to control this from within the controls themselves, you will need to create your own textbox. The easiest thing would be to copy the source code for the textbox within the StrataFrame source code to your own textbox class and change the BindingEditable property to alter the ReadOnly property, not the Enabled property.