>many tks ed, your suggestion works! one small thing though; when i double- click the grid.column3.editbox, it doesnot open up for editing. its readonly=.f. i even create a separate editbox outside the grid to test but it does not show its contents initially but i can write to it. can you advise? tks

You'll need to subclass the editbox control so that a double click launches a MODIFY MEMO or another form with a large editbox on it using the ControlSOurce of the editbox in the grid.