You can try to set a breakpoint in Watch window on
Thisform.Grid1.RecordSource
and see what exactly happens to it when it disappears.

>I have gotten a little further: The recordsource of the grid is set to the table
>"expence". With the following in the button "Show Grid", I now see the grid flash briefly
>on the screen but then it becomes a white box again. I would have thought that setfocus()
>would have placed the focus on the grid and held it there??
>Thanks
>STEVE
>
>use expence
>GO top
>With ThisForm.Grid1
> .recordSource = "expence"
> .refresh()
> .setfocus()
>EndWith