>1. I've done zip, nada, nothing with ADO (for various and sundry reasons).

Same here - like aren't there better things to do - Like being a test subject for the efficacy of snake bite field treatments! - ADO- just another extension of the 'ole script class' <g>. That activex script seems to permeate everything - don't it. Half my last project was OLE script. Go figure!

The problem is this:
When I SQL 7 a select on a SQL table with a 'picture' field, into a VFP cursor, I click the corresponding 'General' field in the VFP cursor, and the bmp or jpeg will OLE to my desktop (eg it pops on the screen).

With ADO, the select returns the SQL fields to the so-called ADO RecordSet. Most of the ADO-RecordSet field data can be parsed to a DBF. The ADO-RecordSet field 'descriptions' may be used to 'layout' a VFP cursor. In fact the ADO-RecordSet describes Memo, Picture, and General FIelds, as well as standard 'types' (I,N,F,D,DD, etc). Moving data from the RS fields to VFP fields is fairly staight foward (you replace!). The memo (notes) works okay. But the translation of an ADO picture field (originally SQL or VFP picture field) (ADLONGVARBINARY) is not-so-staright-forward.

And thats why I don't do two shows a night - I won't!

Imagination is more important than knowledge