dbms_output.put_line question

The line:

            dbms_output.put_line(' text string');

produces output which omits the leading blanks. The only solution I have found is to include a leading period:

            dbms_output.put_line('. text string');

This seems a bit dumb, uses up one column of output, and looks untidy. Is there a better way?

I'm using Oracle 7.1.4 and PL/SQL 2.1.4

-- 
Alan Long
Materials Systems Group
Motorola, East Kilbride, Scotland
email tics28@"spam-off"email.mot.com (remove the "spam-off")