Thanks again for your suggestion. I attached a picture that should make it much clearer. It is a QTreeView and I have re-implemented all the functions (createeditor, setmodeldata, paint, size hint and set geometry). There are several widgets in each editor at each node and 4 different editors based on line type. The problem is that the signal from the dock QTreeWidget carries that widget's WidgetItem - the slot function doesn't get called with a QModelIndex for the receiver, or any other data that lets me figure out which ModelIndex is the receiver. The Application current focus method gives me the dock widget's QTreeView (which it should, it just got a double-click mouse action). And I can't get the signal to relay to the editor, I suppose because it gets created 'on-demand'. I'm sure there's a brilliant way to do this... but I haven't found it yet!