TOPIC: Dropdown Field Type

We have a field type set as a drop-down for product type. As we add additional products types, we put then in alpha order. It changes the current selection on all other records. Is this a standard function of the system?

Yes, that won't work. Unfortunately for your situation, the stored field values are numbers, not the actual data. So if you have 3 values in your dropdown (for example), the values will store in a registration record as 0, 1 or 2. So when you re-order the values, it changes the associations. You can add new values, but you can't re-order them.