>>255 is the maximum it can hold; not what it is actually storing. They are variable length so by shortneing the maximum length you did not shorten what was being stored.
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>Are you saying that when a Character field of any length is created, Access 97 always reserves 255 bytes per record for the field?
Access uses variable-sized fields, and records.
Difference in opinions hath cost many millions of lives: for instance, whether flesh be bread, or bread be flesh; whether whistling be a vice or a virtue; whether it be better to kiss a post, or throw it into the fire... (from Gulliver's Travels)