We present the results obtained by commissioning a wide-range, 6-meter SGM, bending magnet beamline located at SRRC. The beamline is based on the Dragon-type design and delivers photons over a wide spectral range of 10-1500 eV. Two movable entrance slits in conjunction with a shared movable exit slit are employed to accommodate the requirement of different grating included angles for low- and high-energy branches. Gas-phase photoabsorption measurements performed on various gases validate that the resolution is at least 20 000 in the low-energy branch and 8000 in the high-energy branch. The resolution data compare well with the theoretical calculations. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.