> i'm not converting rtf to text.

But you are, whether you intend this or not. RTF controls, such as
any of the RichEdit controls store the formatting strings AS PART OF
the text, and the db aware controls (IBO or other) store then entire
text including formatting in the field.

So of course any string concatenation at the field level will simply
add the new value onto the existing string - ignoring the fact that
formatting may exist. In the case of RTF this will stop the
formatting from working the way it was intended.

RichEdit controls are for use when you want embedded formatting, so
that the single clump of text can have multiple attributes - some
parts bold, some in different colors etc.

If all you want is for text to be display in ONE particular color or
other font attribute use a normal Memo based control and set the font
attributes directly on the memo - so that the formatting does not
become part of data stored in the database.

If you do need RichEdit capabilities, I think there are various
utilities out there for manipulating RTF. I suggest you use your
favourite search engine and try find code to help with what you want
to do.

HTH

Geoff Worboys
Telesis Computing