A great example of the kind of Activity I'm trying to create is the gmail app settings Activity. It lists all the customizable settings vertically with horizontal rules between each setting. There are variety of fields that usually look identical. For example: text fields usually display a bold heading with a description below and a circled triangle to the right.
What kind of viewgroup is the root view? What kind of view or viewgroup is each field?
A settings Activity will usually be derived from PreferenceActivity. Take a look at the link and see if that's what you're looking for.