OK - since the wildcard works, the question becomes "can dsquery return multiple matching results, and if so, NOW WHAT??" \:o How do you select the correct entry when there are multiple matches? Should not be difficult, but should be considered in your logic. For example "Frank Bossé" and "Frank Bosserino" - searching for "Boss*" could return both.

Without doing any additional research, I'd ask "can I use a '?' instead of '*' to match a single character wildcard?". If so, I'd write a little UDF to scan a word and replace any extended character with a "?". Something like
 Code:
; Returns a word with "?" replacing any non-ASCII char
Function PlainNameWC($_Name)

  Dim $_P, $_C                   ; pointer, character
  Dim $_New                      ; new name

  For $P = 1 to Len($_Name)      ; enumerate string
    $_C = SubStr($_Name, $_P, 1) ; get char
    If Asc($_C) > 127            ; if non-ascii
      $_New = $_New + '?'        ; append wildcard
    Else                         ; otherwise
      $_New = $_New + $_C        ; append char
    EndIf
  Next

  $NewNameWC = $_New               ; return altered name
  Exit 0

EndFunction
This is untested; use at your own risk; your mileage may vary; Don't try this at home... \:\)

Glenn
_________________________
Actually I am a Rocket Scientist! \:D