>Thanks Paul, that sounds pretty good.
>
>The other thing is that we have people who use laptops off-line and then come into the office and transfer their data onto their local server database (via VFP application) from their local database.
>
>Could MSDE be used on the laptops as well? Will it synchronise any table structure changes? or will we still have to have a program in place to do that?
>

Yes, you can run MSDE on the laptops. For synchronization/replication, the full version of SQL Server is still required. You might also want to look at the limitations of MSDE before making a decision. For example, it throttles back performance after 5 (?) users, has a 2GB limitation on the entire database, etc. This may, or may not, be a problem for you. I suggested MSDE because it can be distributed for free, but your app may require the full version of SQL Server.