encrypting a file (part III)

ok, this is my third (and hopefully last) question on this matter. :rolleyes:

i've been told that you need to read/write a file as binary when you encrypt it (cos it was just getting all crazy otherwise). however, to do this, you need to store each character of the file in an array and then encrypt each character one at a time to add them to another array right? but doing this would make the encryption less effective wouldn't it? For example, if i were to encrypt "hello", normally the characters "ll" would turn in to two different characters (eg. µ®) , but this way, they'd both turn in to the same character (eg. µµ).

take a look at the last post here http://www.vbforums.com/showthread.php?threadid=89485 to see what i'm talking about with regards to the array stuff.

hope that makes sense :)

ok, nevermind, i think i found what i need again :)