chances are that this has come up before. have you tried doing a search in
Google Groups, under microsoft.public.access.*, to see if somebody has
already posted a solution in the past? if you can't find anything, you might
try creating a form with unbound controls where you can enter the parameter
value(s). then change the criteria in the query to refer to those form
controls, as

Forms!MyFormName!MyControlName

i've never tried this solution, so it's an experiment for both of us.  <g>

hth