Works even without the TRIM. Strange though this works for me in VFP6 but not VFP7:

SELECT errors
LOCATE FOR cError = "NoPlotFile"
IF FOUND( )
    MESSAGEBOX( errors.merror, 16, _SCREEN.CAPTION )
ENDIF

If I am understanding correctly it would work for you in VFP7 sp1. -shrug-

>Jim,
>
>Try assigning the memo field to a string (use ALLTRIM()) and see if that helps.