>Is there some way of referencing a grid column by number
>or array without using & macro method?
>For example like:
>
>ThisForm.Grid1.ColumnObject(I).BackColor = RGB(128, 0, 255)
>
>Where I is the column number.

Yes, it would be columns(i)

you can also do
for each loColumn in this.Columns
...
endfor