>>>>>Hi all,
>>>>>
>>>>>I have used place holder controls fairly often for adding user controls dynamically at runtime. Typically, I can access a placeholder directly and just add a control like this.
>>>>>

>>>>>ctrlSpecialSpecs specialSpecControl = (ctrlSpecialSpecs)Page.LoadControl("~/ORCSelection/UserControls/ctrlSpecialSpecs.ascx");
>>>>>           
>>>>>// Add the Control to the Placeholder
>>>>>this.holdSpecialSpecs.Controls.Add(specialSpecControl);
>>>>>

>>>>>
>>>>>Currently I have a place holder that is inside another complex control and accessing it this way just doesn't work as the control is not visible. I tried to do a find control like this, but get a null reference exception on the control.
>>>>>

>>>>>mmPlaceHolder defendantHolder = (mmPlaceHolder)this.Page.FindControl("holdDefendant");
>>>>>defendantHolder.Controls.Add(defendantDisplay);
>>>>>

>>>>>
>>>>>It is defined on the page like this; very straight forward.
>>>>>

>>>>> <mm:mmPlaceHolder ID="holdDefendant" runat="server" >
>>>>> </mm:mmPlaceHolder>
>>>>>

>>>>>
>>>>>Anybody have any ideas on how to get access to this control?
>>>>>Thanks
>
>Hi Robert,
>I converted your code to C sharp and it works great plus solved the problem. I still have this in my page code but plan to move it somewhere more useful, possibly my base page class.
>Thanks a bunch and also to Paul
>Tim

You're welcome!