>Yes, packing with the keyword MEMO added, will help. I am not sure about what happens when copying, though.

The MEMO keyword is not necessary for memo fields packing

>
>Note that this bloat does not happen in a single user environment, as far as I know.
>

Not exactly. VFP will reuse old space if table is opened exclusively and new memo data can fit into old space, otherwise new memo blocks will be allocated.