Eureka! It got me to wondering to "what does using send to back/front CHANGE" so I ran some tests. It doesn't change any properties in anything, but it does change the ORDER of records in the scx! The further down in the scx record order an object is, the more "in front" it is. I create a form, then plopped a command button then a text box on top of that. In the raw scx, the command button was record 5, the textbox record 6. When I sent the textbox to the back in the interface, suddenly in the raw scx the textbox was record 5, and the command button record 6.

So it would be possible to manipulate this programmaticaly, although it seems a tad ugly.