I am trying to send an email from within a "Contacts" DB that (ideally) includes a record (containing a thumbnail pic) from a related file called "Works".

So far, I can create a seperate layout in "Works" with all the data for a work record in a calc field called "Data Field" (except the thumbnail) and I think its possible to create in the "Contacts" a pop-up that chooses a record in "Works" and via lookup get the data "Data Field" and name this field in the "Send Mail" script.

However, the data from "Data Field" is unformatted and there is no thumbnail.

Alternatively, I could print to pdf the "Works" record to the desktop and then add as an attachment but its messy.

Is there a better solution out there for this requirement?

I'd recommend you upgrade to FileMaker 8 and/or look at some of the email plugins that are available.

OK -- here is a related question.

When I use the Send Mail script, there is the possibility of adding an attachment.

I have another layout in "contacts" that has a container field for storing a "bio" or fact sheet in a pdf file format. When I select this field for the attachment it only returns the file name (in the body of the email I am creating) not the pdf.

Is there another way to do this in FM 7? Wil I be able to do this in FM 8?

There is a checkbox option in the FileMaker 8 Send Mail script step to automatically include a PDF of any layout as an attachment. Couldn't be simpler.

However in FMP 7 you will need either a plug-in or external scripting, ie: AppleScript etc.

Can you recommend a plugin or a script?

There is the SMTPit plug-in. There is also AppleScript. But in either case you will need a firm grasp of printing to PDF (which is built-in to Mac OS X, but there's 2 different ways to do it), and handling file paths. You will need to deal with file paths a bit with FileMaker 8 as well, but it is simpler and can be handled all within FileMaker. So, unless you have overriding reasons not to upgrade...