Thank your for your patience and help. I have improved the code a bit, but have hit a snag. I am using a hash reference to call a Checkbutton variable. The reference on line 55 , $flags{$tab} is the variable $pgr1_flag. Evidently this is ill-advised. Advice?

use warnings;
use strict;
use Tk;
use Tk::NoteBook;
require Tk::Pane;
use Tk::LabEntry;

my $mw = MainWindow->new;
$mw->geometry( "600x500" );
$mw->title("Survival Kit");

##mainwindow, scroll, frames##
my $spane=$mw->Scrolled('Pane')->pack(-expand=>1,-fill=>'both');
my $frame1=$spane->Frame()->pack(-side=>'left',-expand=>1,-fill=>'both
+',-padx=>15);
my $frame2=$spane->Frame(-padx=>15)->pack(-side=>'right',-expand=>1,-f
+ill=>'both');

##Checkbuttons##
my ($pgr1_flag,$pgr2_flag);
my %flags = qw(program1 $pgr1_flag program2 $pgr2_flag);
     my $cb_cnt=1; 
    for my $flag (keys %flags){
       if ($cb_cnt < 6 ){
        my $flag_but=$frame1->Checkbutton(-text => "$flag ", -variable
+ => \$flags{$flag} )->pack;
       } else {
              my $flag_but=$frame2->Checkbutton(-text => "$flag ", -va
+riable => \$flags{$flag} )->pack;
          }
        $cb_cnt++;
    }


##OPEN button##
my $open=$mw->Button(-text => "Open\n Tool (s)", -command => \&but)->p
+ack( -side=>'bottom', -pady=>20);


MainLoop;

####################### subs #################################

sub but {

## kill top window
$spane->destroy($open);

###default hash
my %tools = ( 'program1' => { 'PARM1' => 1, 'PARM2' => 'n', 'PARM3' =>
+ 'y', 'PARM4' => 'n', 'PARM5' => 'y', 'PARM6' => 'n', 'PARM7' => 'y',
+ 'PARM8' => 'n', 'PARM9' => 'y', 'PARM10' => 'n' }, 'program2' => { '
+PARM1' => 1, 'PARM2' => 2, 'PARM3' => 3, 'PARM4' => 4, 'PARM5' => 5, 
+'PARM6' => 6, 'PARM7' => 7, 'PARM8' => 8, 'PARM9' => 9, 'PARM10' => 1
+0 });

## create notebook

my $book = $mw->NoteBook()->pack(-expand=>1,-fill=>'both');

#####program1#######
my $tab_cnt=1;
for my $tab (keys %flags){
     if ($flags{$tab}){       
     ##create tab,scroll pane,frames
      my $tab_tab=$book->add("Sheet $tab_cnt", -label => "$tab")->pack
+(-expand=>1,-fill=>'both');
      my $tab_spane=$tab_tab->Scrolled('Pane')->pack(-expand=>1,-fill=
+>'both');
      my $tab_frame1=$tab_spane->Frame()->pack(-side=>'left',-expand=>
+0,-fill=>'both',-padx=>15);
      my $tab_frame2=$tab_spane->Frame(-padx=>15)->pack(-side=>'right'
+,-expand=>0,-fill=>'both');
    $tab_cnt++;
        
    
       ##now fill frames
      my $parm_cnt=0;
       print "Processing tool: $tab\n";
         foreach my $parm ( keys %{$tools{$tab}}) {
        print " $parm = $tools{$tab}{$parm}\n";
             if ($parm_cnt < 5){
                 $tab_frame1->LabEntry(-label => "$parm=", -textvariab
+le => "$tools{$tab}{$parm}" )->pack;
            } else {
                 $tab_frame2->LabEntry(-label => "$parm=", -textvariab
+le => "$tools{$tab}{$parm}" )->pack;  
                   }
              my $tab_parms .= "$parm=$tools{$tab}{$parm}\n";
          $parm_cnt++;
            }
       }
   }

###################SAVE parameters?
 ## button - disappears on reset?
  #my $save1=$sub_spane->Button(-text => "Save Parameters ")->pack;
########Exit button###########

## Implement save?
my $leave=$mw->Button(-text => "Save & Exit ",-command => \&save_parms
+)->pack;

##############################

#######Reset button#############
##needs better implementation?

my $return=$mw->Button(-text => "Reset ", -command => \&rtn)->pack( -s
+ide=>'bottom', -pady=>20);

}

######################################################################
+######################################

sub rtn{
    system 'perl doOver.1 &';
    exit;
    }
#############################

#our ($pgr1_parms,$pgr2_parms);
sub save_parms {
#    open (SP1,">pgr1_parms.txt");
#    print SP1 $pgr1_parms;
#    close SP1;
#    open (SP2,">pgr2_parms.txt");
#    print SP2 $pgr2_parms;
#    close SP2;
    exit;
          }
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BJ

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