The mean absolute (unsigned) radial IMF from the OMNI database is plotted against time in the top panel, with 13-rotation smoothing (black solid line), with the following multipole strengths overplotted (right axis labels) for Wilcox data: the axial multipole strength (red dashed line), the non-axisymmetric multipole strength (blue dotted line), and the combined strength of all multipoles (green dot-dashed line).The cycle maximal and minimal values for the radial IMF and the combined multipole strength, discussed in the text, are represented by symbols to bring out the cycle-by-cycle behavior described in the text (stepwise decreases, anomalously low cycle 23 minimum values, In the bottom panel these cycle maximal and minimal values are plotted alone, connected by straight lines, to bring the cycle trends into sharper relief.) These plots emphasize that the relationship between the polar field strengths and the preceding cycle amplitudes is far from straightforward, and this is especially true for cycle 23.