>VFP 6.0
>
>Sometimes VFP lets me have long field names (over 10 characters)in a table and other time it doesn't (limits me to just 10).
>
>example:
>
> one table I have has a field called ''accountingperiod''
> (16 characters wide)
>
> another table will only let me call it ''accounting''
> (16 characters wide)
>
>Is there a way to make all of my tables let me have fields longer than 10 characters wide?

Tables in a database can have long field names.
Free tables cannot.