>>Hello Gunnar.
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>>
>>Bring shape to the top of text box and make it transparent. this way, when uoir text box gets the focus, the shape's fill will be visible on textbox.
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>Hi Vladimir
>
>Thanks for your response. ya, i thought about that - even tried that - and you're correct, the shape always shows, but the i gotta refere the click(), the mouse pointer, mousedown(), etc to the text box from the shape.
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>i realy didn't wanna do that if i don't have to - any ideas in that regard?

no, there is no other way. just out of curiosity, what you're trying to achieve? may be there is a better way ;)