MickJav mentioned ToolTip as a possible "quick and dirty" solution.
Uncle Gizmo has a more elaborate solution.
What I did was "in the middle" between those two extremes. My method was very tedious but not difficult at all. It was also very fast.
Step 1 was that EVERY FORM that could be used to enter, edit, or otherwise interact with data, through bound or unbound controls, had a big unbound label on it labeled "Help & Hints." This box, because it was a label, could not itself gain focus.
Step 2 was that every control that could gain focus, whether it was a text box, combo box, list box, check box, or radio-button group, had a .GotFocus routine that loaded help text to the Help & Hints box's .Caption property. The same control's .LostFocus erased it. I was doing other things including setting and clearing highlighting on those controls anyway (to emphasize the location of the focus), so it was a convenient place to make the help text come in or go away.