very strange indeed. all the fields in my portal are displaying correctly except for one which displays correctly for some records and for others just shows a question mark. when i click on that field to edit it, it shows what should be there (a number) but when i exit editing the field, it reverts to a question mark again. any idea what's happnin?

A question mark means the field isn't large enough to display the data. Make the field larger and it should be okay

HTH

Lee

strange though because there are other fields that can't display its entire contents--in those it just shows the first few words and when i click on the field, it then drops down and reveals the other 4 lines of the field contents. should the other field showing the ? be any different?

Different types of fields handle this differently. For example, Text, Date, and Time Fields will just let it flow into the next line, and you will see only what fits into the field box. Number field substitute some kind of shorthand to represent the numbers entered, and Calculations use the ?

Lee

thanks lee. problem solved.