2) If the above is possible as an extension can it return a mixture of
both directories and files (using multi-select)?

if one or both of the above are not possible is there another simple
way of achieving the same results?

any help would be much appreciated! and thanks in advance

Public Function fncOpenFile(ByVal FileType As String) As Variant
On Error GoTo ErrorHandle

  ' Set CancelError is True
  CommonDialog1.CancelError = True  ' Set flags

  CommonDialog1.FLAGS = cdlOFNHideReadOnly

  ' Set filters
  CommonDialog1.Filter = FileType

  ' Specify default filter
  CommonDialog1.FilterIndex = 2

  ' Display the Open dialog box
  CommonDialog1.ShowOpen

  ' Display name of selected file
  fncOpenFile = CommonDialog1.FileName

errorHandle:
'Do your errorhandle
End Function

VB5 SP3 - I get a GPF if I double click a higher directory - this
appears to be due to it trying it access a negative index.

- Jim