can it be scripted so that the user can go to a related record in a window that is already opened?

Yes, do a search for +"go to related record" +window. This has been discussed several times.

thanks but they are all about creating a new window, I would like to show it in an exsiting window.

Do you mean layout?

sorry, let me try again.

I have a contact table which has two 'child' tables (teachers and students). So say there is one window showing the teachers (teacher table) and another showing the students (student table).

Now the user would like to do a find on a name (not knowing if that name is a teacher or student) So I give them a find window (contact table) that will list matching names. When they click on the appropriate result I would like to have the script take them to the related reocord in the appropriate window that is currently open.

I know I could create a script to set the contactID in a global and the in the appropriate window do a find, but ultimately a 'go to related reocord in an exsiting window' would be nice.

You should look again. There are some that talk about setting a global with the desired id, selecting the open window, and using GTRR with a global-to-id relationship in the same window.

I haven't done anything with subtables in FMP 7 so I spent some time working with it. I used the rivet's Client, Student, Teacher model. I did not change windows, I did change layouts. The file is attached.