Thanks Keith. You're probably correct about the web user control - in my case, I've created a web user control that contains a single drop down list control, and automatically populates it with data from a database.

There is one more way to achieve something close to absolute positioning, although it also has issues. Wherever the web user control needs to be posisitions, drop in a 'Flow Layout' panel sized and positions as needed. You can then drag-and-drop the web user control into the Flow Layout panel. It's still not perfect, but it helps.