Kirk,
Just as an update: I found out why on my laptop the variable group titles show only black bars.
It seems the title background and title text colors are the same as set in the Windows Diplay Preference > Appearance dialoge.
The Appearance settings on my laptop were:
Window and Buttons = Windows XP Style
Color Scheme = Silver (which defaults to black text for titles, and on top I changed the backgound color from default light grey to a very dark grey, almost black).
These settings in the PM Variable window show a dark grey (almost black) group title backgound with black group title text = I could only see a black bar.
The Appearance settings on my desktop are:
Window and Buttons = Windows XP Style
Color Scheme = Default Blue (which defaults to white text for titles and blue backgound color).
These settings in the PM Variable window shows a blue group title backgound with white group title text.
After setting the Appearance on my laptop to the same as on my destop, the problem was fixed (shows now a blue group title backgound with white group title text as well).
Just thought I give you an update so you don't spend any more time looking for a reason, and if someone else has the same problem you may be able to advise him what may cause the issue.
PS: I had changed the laptop settings about 3 or 4 weeks ago and not used PM a lot on it since, that's why I didn't notice an issue with previous PM versions.
