John,

How many forms do you have? For projects with many forms, the floating toolbar is usually used. It takes some getting used to but is a much better general solution.

In terms of just plain layout, I have seen many approaches, and nearly all of them are better than mine. I just don't seem to have much aesthetic sense. Knowing this about myself, I usually lay the fields out in the order that makes sense for data entry, and then take feedback from users on the aesthetics.