This should work. The "*" in the 'value if true' parameter should return all records.

Like IIf([Forms]![F_Movie_WatchList]![MovieSearchBox]="","*","*" & [Forms]![F_Movie_WatchList]![MovieSearchBox] & "*")

I think that putting all this on the 1st criteria line may cause the problem just thinking if you put the alt title criteria on the line below the query will go across the down.  Just a thought.  Let us know if it works and what was the fix.

@Kevin: I Know I tried that, but I must have had something wrong when I tried it, because it doesn't work.  But it's working now, thanks.

@Juan: I thought of this, and I actually do it that way in another form where it's the only criteria, but in this particular form, there are about 8 criteria that i'd have to duplicate if I split it onto two lines.

Hi Bryan, the IIf() function only works with strings and values. But in one of your expressions, you wrote:

    IIf(condition, "", Like & "*" & something & "*")

Note that there is no quotation right before "Like", so that is not a string. Normally, this returns an error; but due to some quirk, there is no error here. But IIf() still won't work, because IIf() can't handle anything other than actual values. If IIf() doesn't work, your criterion is ruined, and therefore you get no records.

In another instance, you wrote:

    Like IIf(condition, Null, "*" & something "*")

"Null" in this case is the actual value of null here. It is not something you can concatenate with "Like" to make "Like Null". The result would simply be "Like", the same way "apple" & Null equals "apple" only. So again your criterion is ruined and you get no results (and no error to tell you what was wrong).

My advice is to avoid using "Like" in this manner, because it is not really a string that you can concatenate with something else. It is an *operator*, and is treated differently by Access in the query designer. The only way to properly concatenate these things is to use VBA to construct SQL statements with string concatenation. E.g.:

    Dim s As String
    s = "SELECT MyField FROM MyTable WHERE MyField Like " & IIf(condition, "Null", SomethingElse)

Or:

    s = "SELECT MyField FROM MyTable WHERE MyField " & IIf(condition, "", "Like '*" & SomethingElse & "*'")

Note that I use quotations for "Null" and "Like" inside IIf(), because they are actual strings in this case. Everything is a string here, so they can concatenate freely with one another.