> The "!" is escaped with the backslash (\) and then the use of {3,} means "3 of the previous character", so: Sorry, {3,} means "3 or MORE of the previous character"… if you only want to match 3 characters, you need to use {3,3}: \!{3,3} Ken Ray Sons of Thunder Software, Inc. Email: kray at sonsothunder.com Web Site: http://www.sonsothunder.com/