Better Interface for Proposal

[gmannatl]

I am working on a system to create proposal's. I have a typical proposal system working now. Where I have a table "Proposal" one to many to a link table "LIProposal" linked to a "Parts" table. Pretty basic setup where thru a drop-down list on SKU in the portal will lookup name/descrip/price etc. However, here is what I'd like to do. Instead of users having to use a drop down on the SKU and scroll a very long list of parts, I'd like to have a button that would open a layout on "Parts" - enter find mode and allow the user to search for the part. This part I've got down, but once the user finds the part I want them to press a button on this "find" layout that will enter the part details into the portal on the Proposal. Also, just out of curiosity. Why is it when I set the SKU field in the portal to an edit box and I enter a SKU it does not lookup the fields, but when it is a popup list it works?