I would like my Purchase order layout to work similar to the way quickbooks works. i.e. You type a few characters of the part number in the appropriate line item field and then a few matching part numbers are displayed in the dropdown menu. When you select the part number the rest of the fields are filled in by lookup. Is there a way to implement this kind of functionality in filemaker?

Right now I have a popup selection routine where the user performs a find and selects the appropriate part. It works but it takes time if there are a lot of line items.

FileMaker does allow you to auto-complete Drop-down Lists using a value list, but it doesn't work if your value list is based on two fields (e.g., Part #, Product Description) and the value list is sorted by the second field. So long as you keep your value list sorted by the Part # field it will work. Just open the Field/Control Setup, assign a Part # value list to the field, and check the auto-complete box.