Doh! Ok got that. Now a follow up. Can I set the XControl caption inside the XControl itself? I can get a "this" ref to the XControl. but it is a VI ref, and hence does not have a caption property. I know I could fake it by using a transparent string control, or the caption of another control that is not otherwise being used, but that doesn't meet my needs totally as I would like the caption be be located at different places relative to the XControl