A graphical display configuration system of a process control system provides features within the configuration environment so that the runtime appearance and/or runtime behavior of graphical elements and/or graphical display views (or portions thereof) are able to be validated and/or verified in-line with their configuration workflows wholly within the configuration environment, without having to publish, compile, and/or download draft graphical configurations into the operating environment of a process plant supported by the process control system, and/or without requiring specialized scripts to be implemented within the operating environment of the process plant. The validation may be based on data provided from one or more sources external to the draft display view configuration, e.g., from the configuration and/or the operating environment. Examples of such features include in-line data reference link validation, local test, completeness and/or visual salience assessments, and/or disassociation of configuration comments from published configurations, to name a few.