but how do you get the opject snaps palette to stay on the screen instead of having to right click all the time. And how to you use a running snap for lots of items?
You can set up which object snaps to have available all the time (RUNNING SNAPS) in the TOOLS > OPTIONS > DRAUGHTING SETTINGS.
There also used to be a toolbar with the snaps on so that you could pick it for just one snap - I assume that this is still there in 2010 and just needs to be turned on.