Is there an easy way to align two objects on a specific axis? Other than manually typing in locations, is there an easy way to align objects on an axis like you would in Visio?
You can use Align Objects available in the 3d view header under Object > Transform > Align Objects. 



This will bring up a panel in the toolshelf and you can choose the axis to align the selected objects on. You can also choose to align relative to and the mode to align by.