Since you like to work with the designer, this is my approach:
1. Create the Design panel DesignPanel. Create all its labels, buttons, etc inside it.
2. In the designer, you right click the panel and choose 'Duplicate selected Views'
3. Repeat for all 7 panels. All the child views will automatically duplicate.
4. Then in code in Globals
Dim DesignPanel As Panel
Dim Panel1, Panel2, Panel3, Panel4,Panel5, Panel6,Panel7 As Panel
Dim MyPanels() As Panel
You can still include all 7 in an array of panel. You MUST insert the below line after you load the layout that houses the panels.:
MyPanels=Array As Panel(Panel1, Panel2, Panel3, Panel4,Panel5, Panel6,Panel7)
You can also include the DesignPanel in the array