I'm running a relation db set on 5.5.

Here's my challenge: the db currently has a main user record and a separate db for email templates. In the user db, there's a tool for selecting an email subject line, which then populates with the email template and allows a SendMail function.

I would like to expand these templates and separate them into categores with this functionality in mind: I'd first select the category, which would then prompt for templates within that category, and I'd select from there before sending.

Any tips?

Your existing file structure will work fine. You just need to give each email template a "category" field. In you main file, create a corresponding global "category" field (gCategory, make sure it is a global text field). Define a relationship between gCategory (main) and Category (templates). Create a Template (by template name) value list based upon this relationship.

Create another global text field gTemplate. Create a relationship between gTemplate in main and the template name field in Templates.

Place the gCatgory field on your layout in the main file. Assign a value list of categories to gCategory. Place the gTemplate field on this same layout and give it the Templates value list.

The net effect is you will select a category by clicking on gCategory. The value list displayed for gTemplate will then display only the template names for this category. As an alternative, you could use the gCategory based relationship to display the matching records in a Portal.

The relationship based upon gTemplates is useful because once you have gTemplates populated with the desired template name, you can move to it using the Goto Related Record script step.

-bd

Thanks a lot! I'll run with that and see what happens.