Thanks very much for your reply Craig, but I think there is a more basic problem. Packing the memo file after you've inserted a picture does help.

But... lets take the example of adding one 470KB paintbrush bitmap.
I create a single dbf with a general field.
My existing FTP file sits at 5KB before I link the picture.

If I embed the bmp the file sizes jumps to 475 KB just like you'd expect.
However if I LINK it the size increases to 2845 KB
Performing a pack MEMO reduces it to 952 KB

However that's still twice the size of the actual file. (1MB for a link!)
This is nonsense, it would use less space if I embedded it.

On the face of it this is such a common application (and so simple) I feel I must be doing something wrong. But after many hours of searching I still can't see what.(If it's relevant my 'blocksize' is the default 32)

Thanks again, regards Mark.