[PD] PD- dynamic patching - how to keep track of object creation number?

OK i'm getting a little further in dynamic patching, but one thing i don't get is how you keep track of which objects have which creation numbers in PD. is there perhaps a way to list the objects in a canvas sorted by creation order? for example the '1.1.add_objects.pd' example under the 'pd-msg' in the Help browser doesn't work right - i'm guessing it's because the object number is wrong but i don't know what order the objects were created in, and opening as text means i'd have to count every creation line number until i arrived at the one i wanted. if you've got 100 objects on the screen this becomes very difficult.

so, any way to do this easily? preferably something i could query from outside remotely.

thanks, scott