Qazi - thanks I think you may be on to something, I'm still not there though.
So, in the conditional formatting in the repeating section, I stated the following: contains(xdMath:Eval(../../group2, "field1"), "Select") and then I selected dont allow users to insert or delete this control.
In my view1.xsl file I see that transfers to:
<xsl:attribute name="style">
<xsl:if test="contains(xdMath:Eval(group2, "field1"), "Select")">msos-xCollection-group2_2-editing:disabled;</xsl:if>
</xsl:attribute>
Do you see where I went wrong?
Thanks