update Jim Lemon emailed me suggesting I look at boxed.labels in the plotrix package. I loaded the package, there were a few messages about directories/etc. but somehow I got it working. I got the command to work, just what I wanted. Thanks to Jim -Henry -- View this message in context: http://r.789695.n4.nabble.com/new-to-R-text-command-background-color-tp4359778p4363401.html Sent from the R help mailing list archive at Nabble.com.