I would like Filemaker to be able to copy a string from a field. open another program up. and then paste the string into a field in the program. Can this be done?

For example:

a user has a record with an associated filename. the user types the filename into a text field. THe use pushes a button that opens the scanning program. The program's screen asks for what filename to save it as. I want filemaker to automatically put the filename into that field, it may not be the first field, say it's the 3rd field. so you have to press [tab] 2 times to get to the filename field.

Can this be done? Can Filemaker send windows commands between programs?

I'm assuming you're on the Windows platform. While you can pass another application command line args using the Send Message script step, you can't then also use tabs to move to a given field. You can do this with WinBatch without a whole lot of work. WinBatch as a utility called Roboscripter, that will capture keystrokes and help you create a WinBatch of the keystrokes. See it at www.winbatch.com

Steve