Hi Paul - thanks very much for answering and helping, I appreciate it

If I understand what you mean by "field", that would be the column of data in the excel spreadsheet/database that contains all the city names, do I have that right ?

What you're suggesting was my first thought as well, however, I've been over the excel data, and it's all text ( and formatted as such ). Also, EVERY city name comes out wrong, not just some of them. Also, that column is formatted the same as the columns before and after it, but they are working fine.

any more thoughts ??

thanks a lot
woody