I have an unbound textbox to search from, but in the format property I have the following line

@;[Black]"Search Contacts"

This show Search Contacts in the unbound control until the user wants to type into it then it disappears. Right now it shows in black (as shown in the line), but I would like to have it in gray. I tried just changing it to gray, but it doesn't work. However, I've tried blue, red, and yellow without issue. Anyone have any suggestions as to how I can get it to show in the color gray instead of black?

Thanks
Taz

not sure if there is another way, but this is from Access Help:

[color] Display the formatted data in the color specified between the brackets. Available colors: Black, Blue, Green, Cyan, Red, Magenta, Yellow, White.

Kevin

Thanks Kevin! Guess I need to get better in my Access help searches. I looked, but didn't find what you just posted.

Here is another suggestion. Select your Combo Box and then go to Format - Conditional Formatting. Make the Default Formatting gray like you wanted. Then in Condition 1, change the combo box to "Expression Is" and then enter [Your Combo Box Name] Is Not Null and make this fill color White. After you enter something in the combo box AND when you click in another Field or Combo Box will it change colors.