thanks for the suggestions.

the bcp terminator switches didn't seem to help. no matter what the bcp uses to terminate fields and rows, excel still craps out on the CR/LF characters.

i'll have a look at SSMSBoost later. Looks like something I could use.

To resolve, I found the easier thing is to scrub the columns of the CR/LF (and TAB) characters :

UPDATE temp_EXPORT

SET SUMMARY = REPLACE(SUMMARY, CHAR(13), ' '),

NOTE_TEXT = REPLACE(NOTE_TEXT, CHAR(13), ' '),

RESOLUTION_TEXT = REPLACE(RESOLUTION_TEXT, CHAR(13), ' ')

UPDATE temp_EXPORT

SET SUMMARY = REPLACE(SUMMARY, CHAR(10), ' '),

NOTE_TEXT = REPLACE(NOTE_TEXT, CHAR(10), ' '),

RESOLUTION_TEXT = REPLACE(RESOLUTION_TEXT, CHAR(10), ' ')

UPDATE temp_EXPORT

SET SUMMARY = REPLACE(SUMMARY, CHAR(9), ' '),

NOTE_TEXT = REPLACE(NOTE_TEXT, CHAR(9), ' '),

RESOLUTION_TEXT = REPLACE(RESOLUTION_TEXT, CHAR(9), ' ')