>Hi Viv, I tried your method and it kind of works i.e the control stays highlighted when I leave the panel but if i then click on another control in the panel that too gets highlighted - which makes sense as the LostFocus event on the original control has already fired and remained highlighted as instructed when I left the panel

Maybe create a variable to track 'current red' and reset that. Seems to me that would also mean you wouldn't have to handle the lost focus events ?