Thank you for the reply. I tried reinstalling Maya and it didn't help. I even tried installing it on a different computer, but the error persists on that machine as well. This leads me to believe that there is either something wrong with the Mac version of Maya 8.5 PLE or I am doing something wrong. I was able to add text once and use the BevelPlus option box once, so I'm not sure why I can't anymore. Is there some kind of history or cache I need to clear every time I want to enter new text through the text option box or open the bevelplus option box? I appreciate any and all help. have a great day.