>How do you set it up so that if the user splits the grid or moves columns in a paricular order it stays? Each time a new selection is made from the 'main' form, the grid goes back to the way it was originally.

The memento design pattern could be useful here: the memento design pattern is used when you need to capture a "state" within an object for later restoration.

For instance, here is a class that captures the current alias setting:

SELECT MyDBF1
loAlias=CREATEOBJECT("AliasMemento")
loAlias.GetState() && Captures state (alias)
SELECT MyDBF2
loAlias.SetState() && Restores state (alias)

DEFINE CLASS AliasMemento AS LINE
cAlias = ""

PROC GetState
this.cAlias = ALIAS()
ENDPROC

PROC SetState
SELECT (this.cAlias)
ENDDEFINE

You could create an class that loops through the column collection of a grid, storing the state (width, order, etc) of the columns within a memento object. Instantiate and fill in the memento when the form is instaniated, and then in the GotFocus of the form, restore the grid from memento.

Hope this helps,
Rick