Whew. Glad you got it all sorted out. :)

I finally got it... it just comes from the fact I have used this very little. In short I was selecting the wrong option i.e. disabled because I was inferring that it was the back ground because it was just above the Cell Title "Background"  So I found the correct one and got it working see below...

Modifying stuff in AppStylist can be tricky. If the GridRow AlternateItem isn't working, it's probably because the isl file contains some other role that is overriding it. For example, applying an appearance to the row will not work if there's an appearance applies to the GridCell because the cell covers the row. 

I tried opening up Office2007Blue.isl and setting the GridRow AlternateItem appearance and it works fine for me. So you must be using a modified isl that is setting some other role that is interfering or overriding the row appearances. 

That also might explain why your unselected row text is not displaying - something in the isl file has been set up incorrectly such that the ForeColor and BackColor are the same. Or perhaps some UI Role in the isl is setting ForeColor or BackColor but not both - that's always a bad idea, since these colors pick up system colors by default so if you set one without the other, you open yourself up to the possibility that the colors will be incompatible. 

You could try opening up your isl file in AppStylist and go to the grid tab and play around with the GridCell and/GridRow roles there. But if you can't get it to work, post your isl file here and  will I take a look and see if I can figure out what's going on. 

CellMultiLine was what I was looking for just could not remember the correct name, that fixed the viewable text problem.

As far as alternating row color the setting you referred to does not seem to work. It does not matter what I set that color too is does not show (Note if it matters the colors are based on the "Office2007Blue" isl file.

I can't see how these issues would be different now than when you were using CardView, so it seems like there were existing problems in your application. 

If the text only shows up when you select the row, then my best guess is that here's an Appearance applied to that cell either in code or via AppStylist such that the ForeColor is the same as the BackColor. I can't think of any other reason why the text simply would not show up. 

The three dots is also strange. You probably need to set CellMultiLine on that column to true so that it will show multiple lines of text. But I don't see why it would cut off in the middle like that. Unless maybe that's the end of the first line. 

To set an alternate row appearance in AppStylist, you would go to the UIRoles and find:

UIRoles-->Base-->Row-->GridRow

Then on the bottom you would select the Other States tab. ANd there is only one state under that called Alternate Item.