>It appear I need to format the output into HTML using XSL. Have I got the right idea on this.

That is one possibility. ANother is to use CSS to format your XML automatically. Otherwise, its entirely possible to use the XMLDOM and parse the XML in the ASP, and output it appripriatlly.

>It occured to me that it might be simpler just to return a string of ready formatted HTML from VFP but I guess this defeats the point of it being a web service.

It would also mean that your Web Service now contains user interface (the HTML). To some people, thats not good. But if it works for you, hey, cool.

>Does anyone know of a quick way to render a table into HTML format from VFP.

Having a reusable XSLT to transform XML from a VFP cursor into HTML would be pretty handy.