Profile fields and searching
 

Maybe you guys can help me because I can't really seem to find what I'm looking for.

My member profiles contain a number of custom fields. Some of them contain check boxes where members can select multiple options. However when these are displayed in the profile it shows numbers rather then the value for which the check box was to represent.

For instance, one field is "skills" that shows a series of predefined skills with check boxes next to each one. The member goes through and checks off which skills apply to them.
However when displayed in the profile all I end up with are a series of useless numbers when what I should get are the skills listed for that member. How do I show that properly?

Also I want to be able to set up a member search page that lists all of these custom fields as options for when members want to search other members based on different criteria (different profile fields). It would also be really nice if there was an option for "show only members with profile pictures"

How do I do that?

Basically I run a local filmmaking and acting community and I want local filmmakers to be able to find local actors based on their age range, skills and profile picture. But I also want them to be able to find other filmmakers based on their skills, equipment and so on.
But I don't want it to be completely random based on text fields where people can type in anything they want. That will only make searches more difficult. So I have predefined certain fields like age range and skills using checkboxes.

You're only assigning the checkbox label, not the value. You'll have to interpret the values, it'd help if you could provide us a URL.

Oh yeah, here you go
http://www.michiganfilm.org/community

I'm kind of curious why vBulletin does this by default, what do they expect us to use the checkboxes for if not for a value?

Anybody have any idea about this?

Still looking for any assistance, thanks.