>Paul
>
>Thanks for the info on the CODEPAGE=AUTO setting, it doesn't do what I was hoping for but is good to know (I still can't find it in the docs).
>
>>
>>There's a setting under Tools/Options to automatically display to codepage picker when an unmarked table is opened exclusively. You want to have this checked. In the previous example you'd want to set the codepage to 437.
>>
>
>What I really want is to suppress the codepage picker and set a default codepage to be used for any unmarked dbf. What I dealing with is data being maintained by a FPW 2.6 app that I need to access as an external dbf until I get all the code converted to VFP.
>
>thanks
>
>Donny

Take a look at CPZERO. All it does is open the table as a low level file and modify the table header to change the codepage. You can call it like this:

do cpzero with "c:\foxtbls\people.dbf", 1252

paul