thanks for the responses and suggestions.

I did try and load the file into a hex-aware editor, but its 500Mb and the time taken to load, search etc would be just...

no, its an old log file.

any way to remove the 0x00 content?

yes - its a log file with csv properties.

I know DTS shoulddo that, but it keeps hitting 'none-whitespace' characters in the broken lines an kicking out about them, rather than...

I was pointed to EditPlus last year, having used TextPad before.

I wouldn't dream of using anything else now, for all the reasons that Steve Jones went through.

Two points that...