well I figured it out – I was trying to reinvent the wheel – I ended up using the shortcode from the wp download manger plug-in. DAH!
here’s the code if your interested ->
<?php
$dl = get_downloads('limit=5&orderby=date&order=desc');
if (!empty($dl)) {
echo '<form id="page-changer" action="" method="post">
<select name="archive">
<option value="">read the bulletin</option>';
foreach($dl as $d) {
$date = date("jS M Y", strtotime($d->date));
echo '<option value="'.$d->url.'">'.$d->title.'</option>';
}
echo '</select>
<input type="submit" value="Go" id="submit" />
</form>';
}?>
