Marcia

To make this easier, you need to set the Column's Sparse and Bound properties to .F. Make sure the combo's style is set to 2-Dropdown list. Then, set up the column's controlSource like this... iif(seek...)

Thanks very much for the suggestion. I thought an iif(seek...) for the description was needed somewhere, but I couldn't figure out where to put it.

The only problem is with the Sparse setting. If I set it to .F. the cbo drop down buttons are visible as they should be but the look up description does not display consistently; if I go with Sparse = .T. the lookup description (from the iif(seek...) in the column ControlSource) displays correctly but the user cannot see that there is a drop down box available for editing. Is there any way to have it both ways: the lookup description and cbo dropdown buttons both visible and correctly refreshed all the time? I'll keep playing with this but if you have any additional thoughts, they will be much appreciated. You've gotten me 90% of the way there.

(BTW, I enjoyed your presentation on Graphs at Essential Fox in April)

Thanks again