John -

I did a search for "extensionhandler" but didn't find anything explaining how to handle this [..]

Hmm. I'm sure it was there, I do remember this.

We simply went into the source code for the reportpreview.app and made some changes to the properties and method code and voila... we now end up with the toolbar visible and docked each and every time and the preview screen opens maximized just the way we want it.

This is *absolutely* possible using the ExtensionHandler interface - that's what it was provided for. However, it's fine if you want to hack ReportPreview.App - that's what you have the source for.

In addition, we are NOT using the NOWAIT clause which fixes the problem of previewing multiple reports and not being able to get to the other reports that are open.

Another anomoly that we've encountered is if you call the report from a MODAL screen and attempt to use the NOWAIT clause, then it not only converts the preview container to a modeless screen, but the screen you called the report from to a modeless screen. Very strange behavior. I guess they thought everyone uses modelss screens for everything. We don't!

This may be a bug. It's my opinion that there *is* bug in VFP9 with regards to how it handles the window stack with mixed modal and non-modal forms. (I know you're joking, but certainly the Foxpro dev team does NOT assume that everyone is using modeless screens.)

If you can prepare a simple, stanalone program that reproduces the problem that you are seeing with the default ReportPreview.App, then you are welcome to email it to me, or post it here, and I will take a look at it.
You could also pass it on to the Fox Dev team using the usual channels.

The default ReportPreview.App does some things in order to be as compatible as possible with the REPORTBEHAVIOR 80 mode. It doesn't succeed all the time - it is a regular foxpro app after all, not native code - and as such it pushes fox to the limit with regard to what is possible in this area. Multiple preview forms is one area where it fails to be as good as I would like.

In situations like this you may be better off writing your own preview. It's not that hard once you reduce your feature spec to something manageable.

regards,
- Colin