I played Morrowind a few times back in 2002, and have since played Oblivion and Skyrim dozens of times. But I can't remember some of the mechanics of Morrowind.

Can you enchant a piece of armor with "shield" or "magic resistance" and NOT have to activate it every time? The enchanting menu doesn't let me enchant armor without a "duration".

Also, where do you find a list of current effects on the player character? I enchanted a pauldron with magic resistance, and I had to use it like a spell for it to "seemingly" work...i.e...it made a sound and some light, but I couldn't find anywhere that tells me "magicka resistance" is actually on my character and how much it is.

You can only do "constant effect" enchantments if you have a strong enough soul

So that's why you're probably not getting that option.

The current effects on the player are listed in a row at the bottom right of the screen. http://cdn.tutsplus.com/gamedev.tutsplus.com/authors/michael-james-williams/Morrowind_UI.jpg. You can hover over them when you are in menu mode (open your inventory) and they'll tell you what's providing the effect(s).

There are three types of enchantments in MW: Cast on Use (like a spell), Cast on Strike (weapons), and Constant Effect (works as long as it's equipped). The later games removed Cast on Use.

CE enchantments in Morrowind are generally the most expensive (with quite a few exceptions). Having one made to your specs can cost you upwards of several body parts. Doing it yourself without massive fortification of skills and/or attributes is extremely difficult, even for relatively weak CEs. You also need a soul with a minimum strength that's only available from 2 types of high-level creature (Golden Saints and Ascended Sleepers) plus a few unique individuals.

The trick with CE Enchantments is to defne a range. For example, a range of 1 to 7 can be defined rather than a fixed 3. This way you can put the item on, see what random value of enchantment you got, then remove and repeat if needed. I have never had to do this more than two or three times to get a higher value than what the fixed range would give me.

Ok I see....thanks much guys!