I may be able to help with the problem of being taken out of the "enter new item" screen.  We had a problem with a one user who kept having this happen to him.  It would work just fine on any other workstation unless he opened DBA on that workstation.  He was showing me this one day and I happened to watch him open DBA.  At the registration screen that says "Press any key to continue"--he was x-ing the box in the upper right hand corner rather than just hitting "any" key.  That was his problem.  I don't really know why the minimize or close box would even be on that screen??  
Hope that helps.