Yeap MS really blew this one. Am using vb5 as well and find this is one of the great weaknesses for business apps. You either use standard textbox with lost focus formating as suggested, or use the masked edit box and arfe frustrated by the lack of a justification property.

We went out and brought Greentree's masked edit control, and at under a $100oz resolved the issue.

Since then we got their toolbox as well, which has all sorts of cool things.

Major problem is lack of documentation, and really lame examples. Any one know if Sheridan's are any better?