I have a table for hardware, clients, tickets, etc. Instead of using the "built-in" tabs feature in my layout for hardware, I'd rather choose from a drop down menu what kind of hardware it is (ie, computer, display, printer, router, etc). Once the "kind" of hardware is selected from the drop down menu, I'd like the appropriate layout to appear.

I think I want to keep all of this on one table because there is some basic information that is similar no matter what kind of hardware it is (ie, hardwareID, Make, Model, SerialN). The rest of the information, (albeit a lot), is different for each kind. So if I choose "Computer", you see all computer details below. If you choose "Router", you see all IP configuration below, etc.

Is there a way to do this?

you must have calculation fields, this is an example of where you show the name of your hardware, in the field name you put this calculation:

Case(YourDropDownField = "computer"; FieldComputerName; Case(YourDropDownField = "router"; FieldRouterName))

Hope you find this useful!

hmm... I'm sorry. I don't understand. How will that change the layout?

I can create a script that when a button is pushed, it will look at the drop down menu, see "Computer" and then go to the computer layout. But is there a way that Filemaker will automatically default to the computer layout if it sees that the drop down menu has "computer" in it without having to push a button?

just to be clear: I've got 4 layouts of the same table.

hardware: 1st layout- has very basic info

computer: above info plus computer details

printer: again, info from "hardware" plus printer details.

network device: again, infor from "hardware" plus network device details.

so the user goes to the first layout, "hardware" and begins to enter information. Once they select "computer" from the drop down menu, they should be taken to the "Computer" layout to finish entering information about the computer (without having to push a button).

Thank you very much in advance for any consideration and help.

Take a look at these threads

Navigational pulldowns 1

Navigational pulldowns 2