I have need to create a text file with mIRC. The file contains 3 'columns' of information. In the past I have used $str($chr(0160),%var) to pad the info in each column to cause the columns to align. Now I learn that the use of $chr(0160) is quite a problem for folks with some eastern language versions of Windows (2000 ,XP). Instead of a space they see nasty characters I have yet to find a way to reproduce mulitple spaces in mIRC easily.. any ideas?

well, if you open the program in such programs as notepad and word pad you can use the tab character ( $chr(9) ) and do:
column $chr(9) column
This will align everything over. Then for output on a mirc screen, use $replace and remove a tabl, and replace with character 160.