Your memory is correct, and I spoke too soon. The query became huge again, bigger than it was before, because I had added some more search options. It works, but it adds about a megabyte to the file size.
I thought the design view was a handy way to edit the SQL code. Before the code "blew-up", I could view it in SQL and it was short, maybe a 1/4 of a page. Why would MS Access expand such a simple query to a hugely complex one? It is so large now, it won't open in design view.
I only have one criteria for each field. The OR operator seems to have made the expansion happen.
One idea I had was to make the combo box control have a "" default value, so maybe I would not need the OR and Is Null parts of the code. But the OR is Null option seemed more logical to me, and it worked.
I will start over, make the query short, view it in SQL, and move it into code. The last step i am not sure about but will look into it.
Thanks again.