>>>>Either, or. Tell us about the rowsource and rowsourcetype. This matters.
>>>
>>>the rowsource is set to 2 fields in the dbf and the rowsourcetype is set to fields. I seek a record that IS there then "DO FORM DLIST". Just before the form activated, I issue a 'BROW' just to make sure it found the record. then in the activate section of the listbox :
>>>seek mcateg
>>>thisform.mylistbox1.requery
>>>thisform.mylistbox1.refresh
>>>thisform.refresh
>>>but it appears set to the fisrt record in the file!
>>
>>Seek _after_ the requery.
>
>Thats having no effect either,. Do I put this code in the form itself(activate section) or in the listbox's init section? Also would an inde on the file have any adverse effects?

Try:
thisform.mylistbox1.requery
seek mcateg
thisform.mylistbox1.value = table.field

Where table and field are the table and field in the list's rowsource.