thanks to all for the comments.....Brian's message was the first one that i was notified of as haveing responded so apologize to everyone else.

i finally tossed in the towell and switched to REUNION and am more than pleased. the REUNION tech people are wonderful to work with and i wouldn't hesitate to recommend them.
i was able to export to a gedcom file and it worked perfectly.
most importantly i was able to maintain the RIN numbering system that i had in the PAF system.

i posted all of this on the local washington dc paf user group folder also.

thanks to everyone for their input and suggestions and again - sorry i didn't see any of the messages prior to Brian's most recent one.
Pat