Thanks, Don!
Let me try again. The title of a custom portlet is stored in the field pretty_name. It's pulled out of the database for use in the for by the query specified in the select_query_name clause. But I can't use it in the template, say to put "Editing Custom Portlet $pretty_name" at the top, because it's not defined outside the form.
What I wanted to know is is there some syntax by which I can reference the variable within the form, or do I have to also get it from the database myself in the .tcl script if I want to use it?
Is that more clear?