message line

Hi, I am trying to find a way that I can vary the message that is displayed on the message line when inputing into a box. Normally, on the form you'd set a message in the attributes section with 'comments="blah blah"', and this gets displayed on the message line during input. But I would like to modify the message that is displayed depending on various criteria at runtime. if I use the 'message' command in a 'before field_name' clause this always gets written over. Is it possible to do what I want? TIA || Paul J Harrison || "Millions long for immortality who don't || || paul@roan.co.uk || know what to do with themselves || ||Roan Technology Ltd|| on a rainy Sunday afternoon." || || Wokingham U.K. || ||