1) Oh - sorry - didn't read your first info correct. You are right. I thought it was the general background color of the whole page.
2) Ok.
4) Okay - I select one of the albums, get a thumbnails overview, select an image and view that. Now I'm looking at a window with small green arrows for browsing back and forth. Centering the image on my screen and clicking an arrow - now the I see the top again.
If this is what you mean then I cannot help you. That view mode is not of my origin! I suppose you are using one of smooc's websites and he has access to the CVS. So he has probably made his own template that works like you see. Could that be right?
6-7) Sorry, but I'm not giving any ETAs - they would probably be wrong anyway.
Template courtesy of Designs By Darren.