thanks for the quick reply ... however, my initial attempts at this UI actually were based on pan_create ... however, I found that whenever I tried to dynamically build a string for pan_create I kept getting errors ... and I'm not sure how to resolve them ...

Basically, I was trying to dynamically build the string parameter that defines the panel ... I think I went about it the wrong way though ... probably have to create a local string variable, then use the str* functions to build the string dynamically ... although this is a fairly clunky way to go about making dynamic buttons ... if I were more familiar with the engine SDK ... I might write a custom DLL that can do it ... as I'm sure there's a way to change the buttons in the C++ through the SDK ...

Thanks again for the response ... if anyone else has any other ideas that don't involve writing C++, or building dynamic strings to pass to pan_create ... please let me know.