LT 2012 If I produce my drawings in mm...is it possible to get areas shown in m2 rather than mm2 whilst retaining the ability to draw in mm. The quick property box is useful and ideally would have the length in mm and the area in m2 ? 

I don't believe there is any way you can have AutoCAd report in more than one system of units.
 
For areas in meters squared, you just take the area reported in mm squared and divide by 1,000,000 (1 million, or 1 x 10^6).
I assume that you have large numbers for areas, so AutoCAD may report in scientific notation.  If so, just subtract 6 from the exponent for area in meters.

Thanks Carl.....been doing that manually for years but now moved to 2012 from 2004 (!) and what a difference. Just didn't know if different parameters could now be given to each reporting type.....will now use this site to bring myself up to date

if you work in mm, when you XREF'ed the drawing into a m drawing, you can get measurement in meter. When you need to modify the drawing in meter, you can 'edit xref in-place'. But when you need to work in mm, you can just open the original drawing. This is something I wrote before:http://cad-notes.com/2011/09/autocad-tip-working-with-different-measurement-unit/