aschoch: Finally got around to trying your CDATA suggestion, but it only prints out 8,192 characters. I think the key is to use the FOR XML clause. That seems to be the one that can get around the 8,000 character limitation. Since we're just doing a CONVERT in this query it's probably not getting around that limitation. Looks like Microsoft may have had to do something to get around that limitation when displaying XML using FOR XML.

I'm continuing to pursue this FOR XML angle to see if I can come up with a simpler solution.

SB