Peter .. thanks for your help. I have changed the mask to what you suggested
and played around with it some more. The mask is in the REF field, and the
data is always input via the ASK field.

The problem seems to be the decimal point on the numeric keypad. When I
enter data in the form 9,9 using the comma from the alpha keypad, it is fine
...
the figures come out apropos the mask, ie 9.90 (or in dutch notation 9,90).
however when I use the numeric keypad it seems to read the decimal point as
a full
stop (even though the regional settings are set for different) and therefore
rounds up, so 9,9 would come out as 10,0 and ignore the format mask.

We use the numeric keypad decimal point for other software (including things
I have developed in Access) with no problems,
but it seems that the code for the numeric pad decimal point must be read
differently to the alpha keypad comma, at least in WORD ? Any ideas ?

thanks .. Roger