[nickff]

Pure brilliance steve. I knew there had to be a way to specify the "key", but it was eluding me.

I ended up changing the option tag to:

<option value="{$k}"{if $k eq $objects_per_page} selected="selected"{/if}>{$value}</option>

And this correctly sets "view all" to selected when you select it.

http://future.thefutureforward.com/~clover/home.php?cat=8

Thanks so much steve!