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I am trying to create a custom list that uses columns that are drop down boxes.  When the user creates a new item, is there a way to program "cascading" drop down box so that the contents of one list depends on the selection of another list?  For example, selecting a location, will populate a drop down list for available products etc.

You can do this using ASP.Net and AJAX.  Are you looking for something like this?

Can't you use a site column as look up (on a list of locations)?

Yes the ASP/AJAX example is what I am trying to reproduce using Sharepoint Lists.  I have a list called Locations.... another list called Processes and a third list called Products.  The goal is to be able to select a location and have the processes and products list boxes filter according to the selection made in the Locations list. The concept is simple but I do not know how to accomplish this in SharePoint either using SharePoint's UI or SharePoint Designer.

Have you all found a solution for this? I have a project that requires that same functionality as discussed here.

Here's a solution that works with two dropdown lists: http://datacogs.com/datablogs/archive/2007/08/26/641.aspx. I haven't tried it yet, still doing research.

I found these also:  http://blog.u2u.info/DottextWeb/patrick/articles/466.aspx. and this: http://aspadvice.com/blogs/elandes/archive/2007/03/24/Creating-Filtered-lookup-dropdowns-in-Sharepoint-2007.aspx.  The first one gives a javascript solution. However I have been unable to implement it yet.

 It is unfortunate that Microsoft left this critical component out of their product's initial feature list.  Another issue I found is that once you create a column that is a lookup column, you can't edit the reference to the lookup.  The only solution is deleting the column and then recreating it with the new lookup setting.  This, unfortunately deletes any data placed into the original column.  Also, has anyone found out how you cna actually see the field list using Sharepoint Designer?  All I can see is the web part but not the actual fields that can allow for scrpt additions or further queries... STS1 and 2 both offered a code view of the actual fields.  WSS3 does not.