Thank you Robert and Brian for clarifying this. Robert, is your  
procedure

> appearance button _textColorField,,,,,, @r,  
> _kControlEditUnicodeTextProc
> dim as ControlFontStyleRec  cfs
> cfs.flags = _kControlUseForeColorMask
> cfs.foreColor.red   = whatever
> cfs.foreColor.green = whatever
> cfs.foreColor.blue  = whatever
> fn SetButtonFontStyle( _textColorField, cfs )

required also for non-editable fields or is there a simpler solution  
for that?

(I still find the difference in behaviour between "edit field 1,a$"  
and edit$(1)=a$ in FB4 quaint)

Regards

Dan