Ok, I'm working on a sample drawing to present to our managers to:

     1.) Justify no longer converting solidworks drawings to dwg (old habits die hard around here)  The push-back I get is that non-sw users want to be able to view and markup the drawings (in cad/draftsight)

     2.) Revamp our title block to make them more robust (include important information that our drawings are missing)

     3.) Make use of intelligence within slddrw files to link item numbers within notes.

My issue is shown in the attached jpg.  The box in the Packaging Detail (Item 15) is a block that I created from the DWG file.  The item is in the BOM (I created a blank part file that is in the assembly's tree.  This means, however, that I had to hand-enter the item number into the balloon.  This still works when I add the item balloon to the notes, but my concern is that if any changes were made to the bom (Item number sequence change), I know that the box's item number balloon won't update and the notes will also be incorrect. 

Is there any way to manually force the balloon to link to the bom?

Also, is there a way to change the display style of the balloon once it is in the Note?  I have seen others who have created an assembly off to the side of the sheet with the item balloon as text-only and then link that view's values to the Notes.  I'm not fond of creating a standard where I tell our other designers to 'make it work'.  I would like to create a settings standard that would work for everyone without customizing.

Thanks