For your other question, yes, there is a handy trick that I recently learned. First select all the objects you want the values copied TO, and finally shift select the object you want the values copied FROM, so that the right numbers show up in the channel box. Then select a channel, say translate x, and just hit tab. The value will be copied to all the other objects. It will also advance you to the next channel, so you can tab your way through all the transforms. Very neat.

If you select more than one channel, the first value will be applied to all the other channels, which probably isn't what you want.