Charlie, I don't think this is an issue when there are only a couple of tabs without much on them, but when the number of tabs and their accompanying controls gets significant enough to cause the anomaly (not really an anomaly, just takes time to create the controls on the fly, which is what happens when the text is converted to objects) that you describe..
What I have done is make ActivePageIndex '0' panel have just Splash Screen like stuff on it (Just some Large Shadowed TEXT without bitmaps to keep the Overhead low), so a quick glimpse of that page on load doesn't raise any concerns. You can just repeat the identical page anywhere it is appropriate and it will be accepted as the norm.
