So I am doing my occasional browse through CPAN (http://www.cpan.org) to see if any new/fun/useful XML modules have popped up. Sure enough, I come across XML::Simpler Of course, I had to read it (as I use XML::Simple in some of my code). See http://search.cpan.org/doc/GRANTM/XML-Simpler-1.00/Simpler.pm . Note the date it was posted. Enjoy (especially the utf8 comment). -- Joe Landman, email: landman at scientificappliance.com web : http://scientificappliance.com