Internally, FM keeps track of records, fields, layouts, scripts, etc. with ID numbers. You can find out what they are with various functions like get(RecordID) to get the ID for a single record, and LayoutIDs(filename) to get a list of all the layout IDs in a file.

It would be great if:

1) you could get the ID for an individual field or layout the way you can for a record, not just a list of all of them.

2) you could navigate to a layout or field based on its ID rather than its name or a number that refers to its position.

I've needed this functionality for a series of scripts I use to save find requests. A user can -perform a find and then save the parameters of the find to be run again at a future date. The script loops through layouts and fields, records their find parameters, and saves them. However, if a field name or layout name changes, their find won't work any more. If I could just record the field and layout IDs, the names would become irrelevant.

Go to

http://www.kevinfrank.com

in the downloads area there is a free file called Absolute Layout References. It may help you with what you want to do.

cheers

Sounds like your wish was granted in 8.5: http://www.filemaker.com/products/fmp/functions.html