Alison
If you store binary data in a TEXT field it will work most of the time, but every so often the content will be "corrupted" because of those 2 characters. I can't remember what they are but we did eventually find mention of it in the SQL Server help. Every so often the character combination *definitely* come up in Word documents and zipped files, causing abrupt truncation at that point. Go ahead and try it if you and your customers enjoy intermittent glitches!
Regards
JR
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1