The method and apparatus of the present invention includes a method for providing a non-container object with the appearance of container object attributes in a graphic user interface operating environment. This method and apparatus includes creating a container manager and associating the container manager with the non-container object. A container pane is created and associated with the container manager. This container pane is in communication with the container manager and a list control in the graphic user interface operating environment. The container pane in the container manager both interact to provide the non-container object with the appearance of the container object attributes. If an item is present in the non-container object when the non-container object is started, a contained object is created for the item to be displayed within the non-container object. Next, if an item is added to the non-container object, a contained object is created for the item to be displayed within the non-container object. When an item is removed from the non-container object, the contained object for the item is deleted. When a contained object is present, the container manager is provided control over the display manipulation of the contained object while that contained object is within the non-container object. Moreover, the container pane graphically displays an icon that represents the contained object in a window. The container pane also relays input by a user to the container manager.