I have in the past, by accident, clicked on an item and the name in the Cell View window under "Editor ID" turned pink and I was unable to move or manipulate the object in any way. I found by R clicking and picking "edit" and then clicking "edit base" and un-checking the "on local map", then exit the edit windows. Then go back through the process and recheck the "On local Map" and the object was then malleable again. How do I "LOCK" the item with out it being an accident?

if the name turned pink in the cell view, that means you have an edit window open (it was probably overlapped by a different window like the render view). you dont need to do all that extra stuff like check on local map.

Is there a way to lock items so they can't be moved or manipulated?

Hiding an object makes it show up as pink in the list. If you tap "1" once, it will be unselectable (depending on the object, it will also usually be semi transparent). A second tap to "1" will hide it completely. Tapping "F5" will unhide them unless Preferences->Misc->Unhide all object on Render Window Refresh is unchecked.

When I hide an object it is "light blue". When "pink" I have a edit window open. Thank you both for the information.

with more open edi windows open, pressing save ctrl-s brings them all to the front (one msg-box to click away though)

That made finding them faster, Thanks s7o