Based on tutorial and reference material, and some previous posts here, it seems like I should be able to serialize a char* by using a wrapper like tracked_char: BOOST_STRONG_TYPEDEF(char, tracked_char) template<class Archive> void serialize(Archive &ar, tracked_char & tc){ ar & tc; } But when I try to serialize my struct that contains char*: typedef struct MYSTRUCT { char chtest; char *chstar; } MYSTRUCT; template<class Archive> void serialize(Archive & ar, MYSTRUCT & it, const unsigned int version) { ar & it.chtest; tracked_char *tcp = it.chstar; //****error on this line****// ar & *tcp; } I get this compile error: cannot convert `char*' to `tracked_char*' in initialization What is the compiler complaining about here? How do I fix it? I'm not sure if I have the correct usage of BOOST_STRONG_TYPEDEF, so I also tried: struct tracked_char { char m_char; // the real data template<class Archive> void serialize(Archive &ar, unsigned int version){ ar & m_char; } // casting operators - not compiled char operator char () const { //****error here****// return m_char; } char & operator char() { //****error here****// return m_char; } }; I need someone to point me in the right direction. Thanks, Diane