I have a user control that implements a custom web part verb through the IWebActionable interface, and this works perfectly, but i was hoping to hide the verb depending on the current display mode of the page the web part is in. So that the user cannot select the verb in browse mode etc.

 
something like

if((this.Page.WebPartManager).DisplayMode == WebPartManager.CatalogDisplayMode)
{
    add custom verb
}
else
{
    do nothing -> verb is not added
}

but I cannot access the web part manager from the custom control.

Can you use WebPartManager.GetCurrentWebPartManager(Page)?

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.web.ui.webcontrols.webparts.webpartmanager.getcurrentwebpartmanager.aspx

-Mike

Thats the one i was looking for, thanks mike that's stellar!

Just chucked the condition in before the initialisation of the custom verbs and it works a charm!