I am struggling with Solidworks mates and have several questions.

Can mates be organized? Does the order they are put into the assembly affect the order they are solved in?

It takes longer than I think it should to find the mates that I need to change. For example, if I have a cover that needs to have a change made to the way it mates to the top of my box, I look at the list of mates for the cover. This list includes not just the mates for putting it on the box, but every screw and bracket that I attach to the cover. How do I quickly and easily find the mates that I need to change? Does it matter which mate comes first? Are there any best practices about creating mates that I should be taking into account?

Another question -
I have a component that is mated with a distance from an edge. I know that I can change the distance if I double click on the mate that controls it. To get to that, I am selecting the component, hitting the property manager tab, looking for the mate that controls that, then double clicking that mate. Is there an easier way?

Thanks,
Carrie