Idea one: Don't do this. See #1 on the list [webmasterworld.com]. It doesn't work as you'd expect it to and is annoying as can be.

Idea two: Okay, you're resolved to do this, look at window.onload:

window.onload=function() { 
 if (document.getElementById('qty1')) { 
 document.getElementById('qty1').focus(); 
 } 
}; 

You're getting an error because only body has loaded, qty1 has not yet loaded. You could also do, right before closing body tag,

<script type="text/javascript"> 
 if (document.getElementById('qty1')) { 
 document.getElementById('qty1').focus(); 
 } 
</script> 
</body> 
</html> 

Don't forget to add ID's to your form elements, which you should be doing anyway for proper labels.

thanks for that I will implement that first thing!

thanks again.