Sorting within a Category

Hello!

I looked around to try to find an answer to this questions, so if there is already one posted I apologize and ask that you'd gracefully point me toward it.

I'm trying to add attributes to individual products that allows the user to sort them within a category. For example, I have a category titled "Mounting Products" that has products that mount to a number of items (Mirrors, Roofs, etc). I'd love to be able to define an attribute for each product indicating what it's specific mounting purpose is and allow the user to be able to choose which items to display (i.e. All Products, Window Mounting Products, etc).

I've played around with the attribute and option controllers but that doesn't seem to do the trick. If I had to, I could group them all by sub-category but I'd like to be able to have them all in one category and have the use pick which specific type they'd like via a drop-down menu.

Thanks in advance for any help!

Andrew

I am looking for the exact functionality.

I have 136 items within a sub category.

The actual products already have attributes, so this isn't a solution.

I just need a drop down menu containing all of the products within a given category at top of page.

Any help would be much appreciated!