>Also, is just reading one field in this way faster than reading the whole
>record, or does it really make much difference? My application reads a lot of
>records so I want it to be as fast as possible.

There should be very, very little (or no) difference as long as your 
records are smaller than one disk block. The File Manager's smallest 
"read" is one block; it then "ignores" everything that was read except 
the portion you asked for. Plus, if you're reading sequentially, chances 
are the record is in the disk cache already anyway. Enlarging the disk 
cache is the quickest and easiest "speed up" for this type of program.

Bill