---snip--- Hi Brian Even the choice of using ASCII is in question. With more and more things being used world wide, I expect to see information stored in a meta translatable language. This would be something that could be entered in any language and then print out in any other. It would not just be a word translator but also include phases and even slang. I see ASCII as having a limited lifetime right now. Still, for the archives, one needs to keep things as simple as one can and still try to include enough information ( not encrypted ) to recreate the original. It is a task that Sellam has taken. He has made a great start on it. Personal archives are a different thing. I zip stuff myself. Dwight