>>I'm using the ASCII option on my report form command and the "detail" line comes out double spaced. Is this an "MS bug"? I've tried using SET ALTERNATE with "?", which works, but is much slower.

>The only way I can think to fix "double spacing" in an ASCII report is to make sure you have the detail band as narrow as it can get. I suppose you could fix the file by having a routine parse out the blank line, and write it back to the file using textmerge.

Harold,

I've run into this too and Jerry's right, make your detail band as narrow as possible. Here's a couple of other things that may help too.

1. In general, when designing for ASCII, use Courier New 12 point font for all report objects. This gives you the closest approximation, in the form designer, of what the ASCII result will look like on paper.

2. Make sure ALL the objects on the detail band are aligned (align horizontal centers) - if one of them is even a little bit off it can result in double spacing.

3. Bring your right-most detail band object a little bit to the left, sometimes a little bit too far to the right can result in double spacing.

4. To make your detail band as narrow as possible, temporarily change all the detail band objects to Courier New 10 point, shove them up against the top of the detail band, drag the bottom of the detail band up as high as it will go, then reset the objects to Courier New 12 point. This gives you a narrower detail band that you can achieve if things are 12 point when you set the detail band's height, and sometimes this approach will eliminate a double spacing problem.

HTH,
Rick