>i never had to do what john thornton had to but, just wondering, why does it work with a grid but not with a textbox? isn't there a textbox in the grid as well?

It works with the grid column, there is a textbox within the grid column but that won't work.

I could guess that the ControlSource property really works more like a Dynamic... prop for a column than a real control source. And then the controls that are withing the column, just look at the processed version of the columns controlsource.

Just a guess, I never gave it much thought, but using this alot would slow down the grid (if it were true).