>My problem is to convert Sketches stored Embedded in General Fields to Memo fields so that I can subsequently use COPY MEMO TO to create a file for an ActiveX 3rd party sketching program.
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>This... because there is no COPY GENERAL TO ... command!
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>Must I write a low-level I-O program to copy existing Sketches to files and then APPEND MEMO FROM or is there a way to change the Header of the DBF to make the "General" Field a "Memo" field? Can I get away with this caper.. or is there something that would prohibit me from doing this? Finally, can this be done without rewriting the entire DBF?

There's no COPY GENERAL TO command because data stored on general filed with some additional info. If you simply copy data from the general field to the file it wouldn't be recognized by programms that works with such data. That's one of the reason why it's not recomended to store data in general fields.