Setting the Tab Order
Objects are saved in the order you define them, which can be a nuisance if you have several fields and want a sensible tab-sequence between them. You probably want the Name field first, followed by Address and Eye-colour. Here is the way they came out first time around:

If you use the ‘OS’ button to bring up the ‘Object Sorter’ window, you can move any object up/down the list so that fields are created in a convenient order – I have selected eyes here. This will also help the PgUp/PgDn buttons walk around the objects in a more reasonable way, so it is probably worth arranging all the objects on a complex form into a ‘top-down’ sequence just to make editing a little easier.

Selecting and Aligning Objects
When you drag a rectangle around several objects, all those you select will have solid-coloured handles, but only one is coloured bright cyan – this is the ‘senior’ object of the set and is the one to which the others will be aligned. By default it is the first in the tab-order, but if you want to align to a specific object, you can click this one first, then use Ctrl+Click to select the others one at a time. Here I am about to line up the Address field with the left edge of the Name:

Note that most of the controls in the property browser are greyed out when more than one object is selected, however you can still use the attach toggles to anchor a whole group of objects at the same time. You can also move all the selected objects as a unit – when you drag any of them you will find you are placing a rectangle drawn around the “bounding box” of all the selected objects. If you didn’t mean it, just drop them anywhere and hit Ctrl+Z to undo!

The way the align tools work depends on how the senior object is attached. If you press ‘align to sides’ and the senior object is attached to the right-hand side of the form, any other objects will move so that their right edges align with its right edge. They will also be given the same attachment. The same applies if you have attached the master object to width or height – in this case any other objects will be stretched to the same size and attached similarly.

Spacing and Distributing Objects
To have a set of objects aligned and spaced automatically, select them as above and Shift+Click the appropriate alignment tool – they will be aligned to the edge shown on the tool and spaced evenly in the other dimension using the ‘spacing’ value set in the Preferences dialogue.

Sometimes it is convenient to have a set of buttons or edit fields spread out evenly to occupy a fixed region of the form – in this case select them as above and Ctrl+Click the tool. The first and last controls stay in place and the remainder are evenly distributed between them.

Using the Clipboard
To copy a selection of controls between forms, either design them both together:

Dbx¨dbx.one dbx.two

... or just click back to the APL session and run Dbx again on the second form. Now you can use the standard Windows keys Ctrl+C to copy the selected objects and Ctrl+V to paste them into the other form. They will be pasted in the same position in the target form, unless this would put part of a pasted control outside the form, in which case they will be placed tight to the nearest edge.

Note that Ctrl+Z will undo the most recent change on whichever form has focus.