Abstract: A system for use in a computer having a display for automatically configuring graphical user interface ("GUI") display panels comprising buttons for representing groups, or suites, of related items in a visually attractive manner. In a preferred embodiment, a panel creation engine processes a series of script files to determine, for each group of related items to be displayed as a single suite, an appropriate background template or preprocessed background bitmap and an appropriate button template to be used in representing the suite on the display, based on desired color depth. In particular, the panel creation engine processes a panel location script ("PLS") file to locate, for each suite, a panel configuration script ("PCS") file associated with the suite.