>There is something weird in the way those windows work. When I tried var newWin and newWin.focus() at the end, it didn't work. So, I decided to do the history first and then window.open. It didn't work as well. In both situations, the focus is set back to the original window.
>
>If I remove the history, all is ok, however, the original window is blank and I want it to be back to where it was prior to the post.

I made a mistake in the code posted before. Try this one. It works for me.
Notice the use of 'self' as opposed to 'this'. Sorry.

< HTML>
< HEAD>
< META NAME="GENERATOR" Content="Microsoft Visual Studio 6.0">
< TITLE></TITLE>
< SCRIPT LANGUAGE=javascript>
< !--
 function nw(){
	var newWin = window.open("test2.htm","windowname");
	newWin.opener = self
	self.name = "Main"
	window.history.back()
	newWin.focus()
}
// -->
< /SCRIPT>

< /HEAD>
< BODY>

< P>< input type="button" onclick="nw()" value="NEW WIN"></P>

< /BODY>
< /HTML>

This is what I do to try it:
I access any page in my browser window; then go to this page (via link or entering the URL); then click on the button.
This is what happens: the new window opens with a page that I created (test2.htm), and the main window goes back to the previous page. The focus stays on the new window.

Let me know if it works for you.