Hi, I can remember CTRL+4 is a custom shortcut of yours MoP :) To conver a selection to poly with standard interface press CTRL and the Poly Button in Command Panel.
thanks for the reply mop hmm I cant seem to get that to work, I mean I got the ring of edges selected in edge mode then when I press CTRL+4 nothing happens
It's been a while since I've done any hardcore modelling in 3dsmax, but I used to select an edge ring (my hotkey for that is R, not sure what the default is), then convert the result into polygons (CTRL+4, I think it's the default hotkey). That'll give you all the polys in a loop. No idea if the releases newer than 2008…