I do not believe that this functionality is available in IDL widgets. As regards text color, IDL WIDGET_TEXTs interface with the system widget API for "edit windows" based on plain text. To implement color, on Windows as an example, the interface would have to be rewritten to interface with the system widget API for "Rich Text Format". As regards font style, I am guessing that RSI simply has not prioritized implementation of the algorithms that would probably force a dialog box to completely resize itself whenever a program changed the font type or size of an edit box, and thus required dimensional changes to optimally display the new font. Would such an implementation have a better appearance than the appearance of a program which closed down a dialog box, then instantaneously reinitialized a substitute in the same location? ... maybe not. That algorithm is, of course, available - a program could close the original dialog with one WIDGET_TEXT FONT setting and open a new with different font setting, but the odd redrawing behavior of the dialog would almost certainly be noticeable to end users. Send a feature request to 'support@rsinc.com' and make sure RSI puts this in their Change Request system. Probably, the day is getting closer when IDL's WIDGET_TEXTs will interface with RTF or HTML API's. James Jones