When we first started doing the custom items like this, we used the "replacement" syntax that was in the HTMl file you attached. Since the release of v2008 though, we improved the method (see the user's guide) and it's a lot more efficient. For one, you do not need to list all the variables in your que file like that any more. Simply indicating (v5) when you call the custom item tells MediaLab to create 5 variables for the custom item. Then you can simply refer to those variables as <ml.varname>_01, <ml.varname>_02, <ml.varname>_03, <ml.varname>_04, and <ml.varname>_05 in your form. Try running the attached revision and see if it works for you. I just tried it here and it recorded the data fine.