using cookies

Hi, all -- I guess I need a primer on cookie usage. I've read the manual regarding setcookie and have gone back to look at everything having to do with cookies on this list in the past few months (it seems that I'm not the only one with some troubles, but most of them appear to have been having sent some HTML output before trying to set a cookie). I want to check to see if the user has my cookie to then log him in automatically, and if he doesn't then I show the login screen and he logs in and then I set the cookie if the box is checked. Of course, $_COOKIE is set, so I have to check for my cookie name. Even something as simple as $_COOKIE['test'] = 'tested'; followed by a load of the page and a print doesn't show it. Do I only call setcookie if the cookie isn't set, or do i call it every time I load the page to initialize it? Once I set it, how do I read it? Does anyone have any pointers to a basic tutorial? TIA & HAND :-D -- David T-G davidtg@justpickone.org http://justpickone.org/davidtg/ Shpx gur Pbzzhavpngvbaf Qrprapl Npg!