Sorting Value List and NOT showing sort field

[HendersonD]

I have a text field called buildings in a file called buildings that contains four records. The value of buildings for the four records is:

Primary

Intermediate

Junior High

High School

When I make a value list based on the contents of this field, I do not like the fact that when I go to use this value list in another file in a popup menu, the items are in alphabetical order. In the file buildings I created a numeric field called BuildingOrder and typed in numbers for each of the six records based on the order I wanted to display them. I then went back to the value list and stipulated I wanted to see this second field and sort by it. Now when I use this value list as the basis of a popup menu in another file, the order is correct but the numeric field is also displayed.

I have spent about three hours trying to get my popup menu to display in the proper order but NOT display the value of this second field. At least one hour of this time was spent scouring the internet, newsgroups, and discussion boards for answers.

If anybody knows how to do this, I would be eternally grateful

Thanks

Dave

[CobaltSky]

Value lists are based on indexes, and indexes are always sorted - it's the nature of the beast.

There are two ways around the problem - neither of them quite what you are hoping for.

The first is to dispense with the connection between the value list and the field and enter the values as a hard-coded value list. The buildings will then appear in the list in the order that you enter them.

If you have only four buildings and the list does not change frequently, this may be an acceptable option.

If this is not a desirable option, you might consider changing the 'sort' field for your value list to a text field, selecting the ascii sort option (from within the storage options tab for the field) and isung sequences of inconspicuous ascii characters such as ctrl-h or period (preceded by a number of spaces to distance them from the names on the value list) to establish the sort order.

Other than that, you might consider retaining the numbers, but using them as the first rather than the second field. They will still appear, but may be less distracting than trailing numbers. Since the field will then capture the number rather than the text of the value list, you will need to stack it below a lookup field (which has allow entry off) which draws in the building name based on the selected number.

Hope the above suggestions give you some ideas to work with.

[andygaunt]

Alternatively,

for a bit of outlay on a plugin, ScriptIt by www.cnsplug-ins.com

Not just a timed event plugin, it does menus too. Now these can be based on value lists, hard coded in the script or from portals.

you can then get the data in the order you want, AND you can also trigger a script immediately after the choice (if you wanted).

very cool.