Is there a way to update a dialog item in a CDialog (and on the screen) without calling UpdateData(false) ?

hehe
not only did I know the answer to this, i had already written the code to do it... i was just calling updatedate for no reason

    			DWORD now = clock();			DWORD elapsed = now - timesnap;			timesnap = now;			CStatic* fr = (CStatic*)GetDlgItem(IDC_STATIC_CLOCK);			char stemp[80];			itoa(elapsed,stemp,10);			CString str("Elapsed: ");			str += stemp + CString("ms");			itoa(timer,stemp,10);			str += CString("  Delay: ") + stemp + CString("ms");			fr->SetWindowText(str);			//UpdateData(false);    

The correct method of doing this depends on the control you are updating. For instance, SetWindowText is a method to update edit control text without calling OnUpdate, but to update a CComboBox you would probably use SetCurSel or SetEditSel. Reference MSDN help for the item you wish to explicitly update.