I'm not sure this is a standard thing but I remember some app I used that could do it. Basically if you selected whatever shape tool and clicked (or double clicked?) a spot on the canvas it'd pop up a dialog asking for dimensions, and shape/sides/etc if applicable. Hit ok/return and it'd place the shape where you clicked on the canvas.
Alternatively I think another method was to double click the icon in the toolbar, it'd bring up the same dialog but just place the object in the middle of the screen (current viewport).
And as for the transform palette, I'm talking about stuff like moving or resizing or scaling or whatever.
Resizing is (hopefully) simple enough, only tweak I want there is when tabbing in the fields and typing a number, it doesn't include the measurement unit when replacing the text (this kind of applies for all cases with the palette actually). Like if the document is in inches and I tab to the height field and type "5mm" and hit return, it won't stick because the field still has the " in" right after it instead of begin fully replaced. I have to arrow over or forward delete the "in" out first before typing any other units in.
For other types of transforms I know the "function=number unit" trick (like to scale 80% you do *=80%) but it's pretty awkward and seems like it could be a lot simpler. Mostly just take out the equal sign requirement, like to move something 5 units, +5 is easier and more logical than +=5 (to me at least). And if there's a percent with no preceding function, assume it's meant to be a scale. I like the flexibility of the transforms you can type in, it's just that it's weird syntax.