[Russ Beavis]

Maybe I'm missing something. If the initializer input is wired to a constant, it will always start with the same value. If the initializer input is wired to a control or local/global variable, it will always start with whatever the control/variable is set to.

A word about controls - the default value of the control can be changed in a number of ways. You can use "Edit->Make Current Values Default" to set the currently-visible values as the default values for the next time that you open the VI. Also (this is my preference), you can use a local variable to force the control to have a known value at the beginning of execution.

Controls and indicators aren't that different. They're both simply variables that can be written to and read from by your software (generally with local variables) but they've obviously got different accessibility from the front panel when running the application.

Russ