What is the best way to create a find script to avoid manually typing in the criteria? Ie., the client would like to simply choose from some kind of pop-up list defined by records in the same file which when a listing is chosen, the appropriate script is run for the selected find?

Hi,

You're talking of a find while the title you choosed for this thread deals with sort.

If it is for a sort script, then the value in the drop-down could be the fieldnames themselves.

GetField( ) is therefore the handy function to use to get a dynamic sort.

If you want this list to only display the fields on the current layout, you'd use the FieldNames ( ) function, and a small script to pass the list of fields to a text field.

Then all you need is a related value list, targetting this new list and using a self relationship on the recordID.

If it is for a find script, then you may want to dissect "SmartFinds.fp5", available in the article section of this Forum.

Although I'm using this technique on a day to day basis, I couldn't reproduce it here as a sampler in the same manner, and it may appear a bit obscure. Please ask if really this is what you're looking for. It's a hard work, but when working it saves a lot of time.

HTH