The only way I have found to directly change the color of the button would be using a windows api call. I have created a button class with this code:

**got focus event
for i=1 to 5
this.top=this.top -1
this.left=this.left-1
this.height=this.height+2
this.width=this.width +2
next
this.forecolor=rgb(0,0,255)

**lostfocus event
for i=1 to 5
this.top=this.top+1
this.left=this.left+1
this.height=this.height-2
this.width=this.width -2
next
this.forecolor=rgb(0,0,0)

This has the effect of changing both the font color and the size of the button when it gets focus so the user knows exactly where he is at any time.