Ans 1) You can explicitly set focus to the textfield using
textfield.requestFocus(); when your app loads.
Note: this works only in application & not in
applet, which is a bug in JDK.
Ans2) I don't understand how the user is not able to select another choice, could u pls post ur code, because in normal cases in a buttongroup u can select only "1 at a time", so after selecting one, if you want to select another u can do so but the previous selection goes.