WOOHOO!!
Well, all your replys and help payed off!! This morning I found a copy of a previously working prototype from a previous programmer. While my supervisors didn't like his method, he had accomplished the mutlitabbed interface problem (using one VCR button bar w/ 3 pageframes).
So I started looking through his code for things that would 'link' the button bar to the currently selected tab. I found it. In the 'Activate Event' code of each tab he had these lines:

SELECT tablealias
ThisForm.buttonbar.nworkarea = SELECT(0)

When I took these lines and put them in my form...VOILA!! However, I can't figure out how this works (as the curious individual that I am)....
Here's my current question: How does .nworkarea work? As far as I can tell, this is set up by FoxPro Wizard when you set up a form. I tried it and it's there after form creation, under the button bar properties. But it's not a documented method or event...there must be something referencing the value in .nworkarea...what is that something? Anyone have any clues?