The qty values are very important to maintain because a number of other calculations are tied to the qty values. If I were to do the x*y, the underlying table column value would also change (since the grid is bound to a table). Do so would ruin some of calculation which rely on that table holding qtys and not $ amounts. 

I am hoping to get away with some "for the eyes only" kind of solution which would not mess with my underlying table field values. Thanks anyway!

So I am still awaiting for any suggestions?

I found that in UltraWinGrid, a cell's text property is read-only. 

Try this and it won't compile  ->   ultraGrid1.DisplayLayout.Rows[0].Cells[0].Text = "hello"

Did you mean some other property?

So I am still looking for suggestions.

Chris Bishop said:

you thought about adding unbound columns? and then just looping through to do your cacluations?

Yes, I have been thinking of a similar idea. I was thinking I would create another table to hold these value and writing event handler to keep them in synch. As you suggest I can instead create a new column for every qty data column. The dollar data column can been tied to qty data column using CalcManager formulas .  The disadvantage is both options would double the amount of memory. Your text attribute idea was very promising and would have been an "eyes only" kind of solution I was looking for if had worked. Thanks again for trying hard for the solution.

I will see if Mike Saltzman has some suggestions on Monday.

weird every once in awhile it tells me i cannot post without approval hmmmm....
Well incase you don't get my last message i will try it again... I don't think you are going to be able to do the "text vs value" thing (sorry haven't been in win controls in awhile so gave you the wrong adivse there)...

Knowing that you do not want to modify your dataset have you tried adding unbound colums?
Something like:

using Infragistics.Win.UltraWinGrid;

public class Form1
{
   
    private void Form1_Load(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
    {
        this.UltraGrid1.DisplayLayout.Bands(0).Columns.Add("widgetAcol", "WidgetA Text");
       
        UltraGridRow x;
        foreach ( x in UltraGrid1.Rows) {
            if (x.Cells(0).Value == 1) {
                x.Cells(4).Value = "I am widget a text value";
            }
        }
    }
}