Stuart,

>frmMain.statusbar1.panel(1).txt = "?????"

You were close (assuming you are using the MS Statusbar control:

thisform.statusbar1.Panels(1).Text = "test"

>I also nned to know how can display text to this status bar from the menu. If i add a message for a particular menu item, it displays on the Fox status bar, but not the one on my main form.

You could use a timer to periodically poll the current _vfp.StatusBar property and copy that to your form's statusbar.