Nadya, are you sure they are blank records and not the result of CR/LF ?

remember , too, that a TAB is a command to move to the next EXTERNALLY DEFINED stop position ( think typewriters! )

Tabs seem to act sometimes as a fixed postion ( 1", 2" etc ) and sometimes as a number of characters so using a smaller font sometimes moves everything to the left and sometimes just gives you tiny print spread across the page.

A cheap trick is to create a table with your processed data before you use the report writer, you can stick calculated totals in a memo field on a blank record or whatever, then use the report writer to print all the headers, footers, blindly copy the data records but not do the math! ( getting sub totals or discounts on a data driven basis was the main reason I abandoned the report writer! )