2 newbie questions ;)

Hi there, I am populating form elements (type="text") with values from a db, but if the string has a space in it, it cuts the string off at the space. eg. $var = "the cat in the hat" but all you see in the text box is "the". is there a function I should be adding to my echo line? Also I have an anchor tag that is a link to open an Access db. For some reason it opens 2 copies instead of one. i have tried the following: <a href="..\foldername\microsoft_sucks.mde" target="_blank">Launch App</a> and <a href="file://server/path/ms_sucks.mde" target="_blank">Launch App</a> but it seems to want to open two copies anyhow, anyone seen this before? Thanks, Steve.