file chooser dialog issue

[Jacob Schmude]

Hi all

Recently, in a few programs--most notably in audacity and some older  
installer packages--I've run across what I'm calling the file chooser  
dialog, as I can't think of any other name for it. These are  
different from the typical file open dialogs in os X and I'm having  
problems navigating them. These dialogs have two buttons with no  
labels, which I've come to figure out by trial and error are the back  
and forward buttons. A pop-up button is right beside these two  
buttons which acts ust like the recent places list in the file open  
dialog. Following that are two unknown objects that I can't even  
interact with, followed by a browser. It's the browser that is the  
most trouble--I was just describing the dialog so it was clear what  
I'm referring to. 95% of the time, when I try to interact with this  
browser, the application goes into a permanent busy state and I have  
to force quit the app. When this doesn't happen, it will tell me the  
name of the first file I'm highlighted on, followed by a message like  
"row -28003041 of 1". After that, all I get when navigating through  
the browser is VO saying "group." Has anyone found a way to interact  
with these dialogs effectively? It seems to be hit or miss, looking  
around with the VO keys can sometimes tell me what file I'm and  
sometimes not. The thing I really need to figure out though is why  
the app will go into a permanent busy state. For those who use  
audacity, the import audio dialog is the kind of file browsing dialog  
to which I refer.

Thanks for any help