>I am using memo fields to hold text for letters in a mailmerge operation, but the text lacks the ability to be formatted (i.e bold, italics etc.)

I believe that you invoke the formatting capabilities of the RTF control by using its methods. You get to create the UI yourself. For example, for creating bold text: Create a pushbotton with a "B" on it. When pushed, you invoke a method in the RTF control that "bolds" any selected text. I can't remember exactly what the method is called, but that's the idea. There are also methods for extracting either plain text or RTF text from the control. If you want to save the formatting, you will (of course) need to save the RTF text.