Settings that need faster access

[RMorrison]

I'd much rather see development of some kind of properties palette that can remain open always (perhaps it could be included in the project browser) than a pop up for properties. I can already see what layer an object is on by glancing at the status bar, and there's a default hot key to open the properties dbx, but I don't want to have to take any additional steps at all to see, or edit, all properties of a selection.

I think this is my highest priority in a nutshell. Having to open, then TAB, through a DBX (the text DBX immediately springs to mind as the worst offender for me) to get to the layer setting, for example, is maddening.