To create just a text editor using CView will require alot of (unnecessary) work! If that's actually all you you want to do then use CEditView (as you suggested) or CRichEditView when creating the application in the wizard. If your problem is actually that you wish to display graphics as well, then the CRichEditView will take care of that too. Otherwise, take a look at some of the examples here on Code Project: there are many that show you how to over ride "OnPaint", which is what you're going to have to do if you wish to manually code to at least display text in a CView. Another method (not necessarily the best: you need to be more specific as to your problem) is to write text / draw to a bit map and then simply display that in the CView. Search for "double buffering", "bitmap" or "graphics" in Code Project. "Code Guru" is another good site to try. :)