Perhaps this was my ignorance about how to use Matisse, but I did some cut and paste of gui objects from one form to another during design. Of course, some labels and whatnot were changed afterwards in the second version.

Previewing the second form looked fine.

Come to find out now, the second form ISN'T fine. If I actually run it as a java application, the GUI stuff looks a lot like I never touched it after it was copied.

Put another way, my form is completely out of sync with my java file. But the form looks fine! I don't even understand how the form is getting generated.... Is there any way to regenerate the java file correctly from the form? Changing the form and saving it doesn't do anything.... deleting the java file doesn't get me anywhere either.

I have a feeling your form has a main method in it that is explicitly creating an instance of your *old* form and running it, instead of your new one.