thanks for your input. It just dawned on me I could do forms to save data in any type of file format the upload the file and write it to the db. I could even download a file and read it that way.

Last question I promise :) If I use something like postreg or mysql do you have to have that installed on the users machine to run the engine? Or does vb take care of installing the necessary components. This si going to be a standalone app. (one user...)