How do I - richeditctrl 2.0 vc++ 6.0 - not seeing rtf formatting when saving the data

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C++

VC++

i have a simple sizing dlg with a richedit 2.0 control - 2 problems:
1 - i do not see how to apply formatting - do i someho need to capture right click and create a context menu?
2 - when the data is retrieved from the ctrl, there is no formatting instructions so it's saved as plain txt to the db

What I have tried:

creating the dlg and the cricheditctrl
main instance of the (very large) program - checked to be sure AfxInitRichEdit2() is called