Thanks, I found a solution I listed previously on this thread. But I like yours better if only I could get it to work. When I run yours I get a
"'field' phrase is not found", and the debugger is pointing to this line:

THIS.ROWSOURCE = lcrowsource

I tried putting the SQL of lcrowsource on a line by itself and the program croaks on it. By process of elimination I've narrowed the problem down to
(THIS.PARENT.formtype1.VALUE)
because if I substitute a "A", for example, in there it doesn't croak.
In the debugger, it knows what this.parent.formtype1.value is, so it isn't just a typo. I've tried every combination I can think of (thisform, specifying the form name, etc.) with no joy. Is this some obvious problem? Don't spend too much time on it because I've got it working a different way, but my ignorance bothers me.
My office mate is bicycling through western Australia as I write this, the lucky duck.