The danger is that you type what you think you see, but the important thing to my mind is that a database is only of use if you can extract usable information from it. Would a search for William find all the ocurrences of *illiam or _illiam ? Would anybody think to use wildcards in this case? The following appeared in "The Times" a few months back - "Aoccdrnig to rseearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer is at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae we do not raed ervey lteter by it slef but the wrod as a wlohe. ceehiro. That'll **** the splelchekcer." Corin Mills