I'm trying to load some data from a parent form, actually the main Form, of my app into a dialog box using the following: Config config; config = ((Form1)this.ParentForm).config; the ParentForm though is always 'undefined' and a NullReferenceException occurs with the followiing information: 'Object reference not set to an instance of an object' I'm confused, as I followed the code example in the C# help "Retrieving Information from the Parent Form of a Dialog Box". What am I doing wrong, how do I manage this?