OK OK OK - messagebox/editbox it is. I was trying to be fancy and have the message fade out which I can do with window generated message.
thank you for the detailed explanation Lutz - I appreciate the time you took to explain all to me.

k




>>Here's the follow up to my previous enquiry
>>I want to define the width of my temp window to match the longest sentence in this sample 3 line message
>>In this case for example I need the code query to produce the number 31
>>
>>mes = 'I need the greatest line length'+chr(13)+chr(10)+'Of this 3 line message'+chr(13)+chr(10)+'any suggestions??'
>>
>>then I can use that length to define the width of the window that will open.
>>(I hope i'm not regressing your coding experiences too far back.)
>>
>>tnx for your help
>>
>>k
>
>As others suggested
>
>It's not up to date to put a message in a temp window. At least not with ?.
>One would use a form with editboxes etc. Calc the dimensions of the Edittbox, add some buttons and fit the form around.
>
>If you realy need to let it look like a window, play around with the color* and border* properties.
>
>But even for the editbox you would need to calculate the height - there is no autosize property. :)
>
>You need to calculate width and high.
>This depends on the len of the lines and the number of lines. Your friend is TXTWIDTH
>
>For the height it's the height of a line + extra gap
>
>So it needs to run the string line by line, get maximum lenght, number of lines * lineheight + gap
>
>The gap is bit tricky
>
>WIDTH see:
>

>HELP TXTWIDTH
>

>
>the height of a line is
>

>  lnLineHeight = ;
>   FONTMETRIC(1,.FONTNAME,.FONTSIZE,lcFontStyle)+;
>   FONTMETRIC(5,.FONTNAME,.FONTSIZE,lcFontStyle)
>

>n Lines => n * lnLineHeight
>
>the gap is (for a given lnLineHeight)
>

>WITH THIS
>*CALCULATE the top-bottom-gap
> lnOldHeight         = .HEIGHT
> llOldIntegralHeight = .INTEGRALHEIGHT
>
> .HEIGHT = 2
>
>*next three lines Start .INTEGRALHEIGHT
> .FONTSIZE       = .FONTSIZE-1
> .INTEGRALHEIGHT = .T.
> .FONTSIZE       = .FONTSIZE+1
> .INTEGRALHEIGHT = llOldIntegralHeight
>*now we display exact one complete line in HEIGHT.
>
>*one line  is    FONTMETRIC(1,...)+FONTMETRIC(5,...)  + gap (figured out this rule manually)
>*n   lines is n*(FONTMETRIC(1,...)+FONTMETRIC(5,...)) + gap (   "                          )
>
>*gap is .HEIGHT - (FONTMETRIC(1,...)+FONTMETRIC(5,...))
> lnGap = .HEIGHT-lnLineHeight
>
> .HEIGHT = lnOldHeight
>ENDWITH &&THIS
>

>
>HTH