>I have a main table (schedule) with several (6) look-up tables (location, category, contact, ...).
>
>They are related by key fields (schedule.loc_id -- location.loc_id, etc.) The schedule table does not necessarily have these fields entered (the client wants them optional).
>
>What is the syntax for several outer joins with SELECT? I took a shot at it with the query builder, but it doesn't retrieve the right data either.
>
>Setting relations and running reports works, but I have to export this to Excel.
>
>Any help or alternatives are greatly appreciated.

Scott,
A cheezy solution is to add a blank item to each of the lookup tables. Then your inner joins (or WHERE clauses) will work.

Barbara