thanks for the reply. 

I think i might be able to use your product with another product to get the results i want

HI all,
         I found this product last week and the printer program works like a charm.  I would now like to get fancy and see if I can cut the printing process out together and upload the data directly.  I bought the advanced serial logger product (waiting for my key to be in the database to finish registering) but I'm not sure the best way to get the data I want.  The end result would be a CSV file that I can read into our SqL application and an excel spreadsheet for accounting.  below is an example of the output i get from the cradle now (please ignore trial version messages.

ACME STORES, INC.   04/18/2010  17:43    Page 1#0D#0A
                      POOL AUDIT100 packets trial version limit#0A

POOL LOCATION BLT     User ID D81

TRAILER# EEEEEEE129          MANIFEST # 345217   
SEAL# A144573   
 
STORE # 100 
   0131-0931-00-994892   0131-0931-00-994962   0131-0931-00-9949100
   0131-0931-00-995131   0131-0931-00-995138   0131-0931-00-9951100
   0131-0931-00-995188   0131-0931-00-995241   0131-0931-00-9952100
   0131-0931-00-995255   0131-0931-00-995256   0131-0931-00-9952100
   0131-0931-00-995260   0131-0931-00-995261   0131-0931-00-9952100
   0131-0931-00-995275   0131-0931-99-104083   0131-0931-99-1043100
   0131-0931-99-104382   0131-0931-99-107103   0131-0931-99-1071100
   0131-0931-99-107105   0131-0931-99-107140   0131-0931-99-1086100
   0131-0931-99-108707   0131-0931-99-108720   0131-0931-99-1087100
   0131-0931-99-108810   0131-0931-99-10100
   NUMBER OF CARTONS 00210

STORE # 101
   1267-0931-00-907553   1267-0931-00-907554   1267-0931-00-9075100
   1267-0931-00-907592   1267-0931-00-907597   1267-0931-00-9075100
   1267-0931-00-907599   1267-0931-00-907610   1267-0931-99-1034100
   1267-0931-99-104735   1267-0931-99-104736   1267-0931-99-1200100
   1267-0931-99-120065   1267-0931-99-12100
   NUMBER OF CARTONS 00110



TOTAL CARTONS 0777#0C

I don't see anything that starts the packets but it looks like everything ends with #0D#0A (they all don't show up because of the limit message
I was figuring that I could say packets start with #0A and end with #0D which would give me all the data except the very first line up to the date
The other odd thing is that the numbers under the store numbers
1267-0931-00-907553   1267-0931-00-907554   1267-0931-00-9075100
are treated as one line, not 3 separate numbers.  I'm not sure how i would split the individual numbers
out.  some numbers might be shorter but never longer than above.  The number of locations vary from store to store so i would probably have to key off of store# for the start and stop of the numbers.

My short term goal is to get an excel spreadsheet that looks like this
POOL LOCATION BLT     
User ID D81
TRAILER# EEEEEEE129         
MANIFEST # 345217 
SEAL# A144573
STORE # 100
0131-0931-00-994892
0131-0931-00-994892
0131-0931-00-994892
0131-0931-00-994892
NUMBER OF CARTONS 00210
STORE # 101
1267-0931-00-907553
1267-0931-00-907553
1267-0931-00-907553
1267-0931-00-907553
TOTAL CARTONS 0777#0C

where the location numbers are all now in their own cell under their respective stores.

My other goal would be a CSV file where all of the above data would be one comma delimited file and I should be able to use our data import tools to cut out the important data (Pool, trailer, seal, store number, total carton)

What would be the best parser/method to use to attempt something like this?  Am i asking too much of the parsing tools?

My programming days are far behind me but if it is possible i don't mind re-learning.  I do have some time before this becomes critical but not months.  I would rather start off in the right direction with the right parcer than go through all the options one by one.

I figure if i can only get one working I can create the CSV from the excel file or create the excel from the CSV.  I not sure which one would be easier.

thanks for your time.