Marcia thanks for your help.

I haven't got this solved just yet. I simply have a cbo with 3 hand entered items (type=1 Value). When user keys something new the value needs to fill the this.value property so it will get captured "Append Blank" right along with all the other text boxes that have just been populated from the keyboard. I am not trying to add the new element the pick list. Each picklist item saves perfectly.

I change the type=6 Field and got a compile error message about phrase "field" not found.

in the Valid I keyed

this.value = this.DisplayValue
this.requery()

Still cbo drops keyed value and leaves the this.value blank.

Dallas