I think I found an answer to the age old problem of mangled columns when using REPORT FORM TO FILE xxx ASCII.

In summary, the fields have to be stored in FRX in right to left order. Here is code to do that.

lcFileFrom = 'reports.bak\xxxx.frx'
lcFileTo   = 'reports\xxxx.frx'
SELECT *,SPACE(13) AS cOrder ;
  FROM (lcFileFrom) ;
  INTO CURSOR Temp READWRITE

REPLACE cOrder WITH '1'+TRANSFORM(RECNO(),'@L 999999') FOR INLIST(ObjType,1,2,3,4,9,10)
REPLACE cOrder WITH '2'+TRANSFORM(999999 - HPos,'@L 999999') FOR INLIST(ObjType,5,6,7,8)
REPLACE cOrder WITH '3'+TRANSFORM(RECNO(),'@L 999999') FOR ObjType > 20

SELECT * ;
  FROM Temp ;
 ORDER BY cOrder ;
  INTO TABLE (lcFileTo)
USE

ALTER TABLE (lcFileTo) DROP COLUMN cOrder
USE IN (JUSTSTEM(lcFileFrom))
USE IN (JUSTSTEM(lcFileTo))
USE IN Temp

Alex