Make certain there are no control Text boxes, buttons and even the width of the Label can cause the form to expand again when you open it up.

Without seeing a copy and lay out of your form it is difficult to tell why it is doing?

thanks, I will check out the control stuff and anything else.

Make sure which sizing handle you are using too.  In the pic below there is the form size in red and the design window size in blue.
The red one will determine the size of your form.
The properties of the Form can also make changes to the form,  Second pic.
Also make sure you aren't doing a maximize in any of you code.

I wonder if the problem is caused by the form's Pop Up property set to No (default).  The form's height and width in design view only come into play when the form is a popup.  A non-popup form always fills the whole window when you open it in form view.

I changed the Pop Up to Yes, and it works.  the menu will pop up small, then when I click a button, the next form pops up behind the menu. Which I can then resize beside the other form

Thanks for you help.