>I'm converting some dbf's to SQL Server tables.
>In several cases, I have to replace the dbf as a recordsource of a grid with a cursor created by reading from a SQL table.
>I set the cursor name as the recordsource property of the grid, set the column names as the controlsource properties of the columns.
>When I show the form instead of showing the named columns column1 in the grid shows the contents of column 1 in the cursor, etc, etc.
>As a workaround, I changed the query so that things work, but that will not work in every case.

Seems like the alias is not open when the grid instantiates. Or it was recreated after the grid already caught it, i.e. closed then re-created. You may use the so-called 'soft select' technique, to have the cursor created in code, then zapped and filled from the query's cursor whenever necessary. That way the grid's cursor is not closed and re-created and the grid doesn't rebuild.