Thanks for your help so far. I wasn't clear enough about item #4. I said:
"4. When viewing a product and changing color or size, the description text changes to be <PRODUCT NAME>: Small Purple. How can I make it just show as <PRODUCT NAME> without the ": Small Purple" after it yet still get that ": Small Purple" in the cart? I know I can customize that template, but I was hoping there was a setting to remove that."
What I am referring to is the characteristics of "size" and "color" that can be selected by the customer during the order process. Thus, if a customer is ordering a shirt and that shirt comes in Small, Medium and Large and it also comes in Black or White, the customer sees two drop downs, one for size and one for color. If the product is called "Great T-Shirt" when the customer makes a selection of "medium" and "black" the display says "Great T-Shirt: Medium Black" and I just want it to say "Great T-Shirt" but when it is added to the cart it should THEN include "Great T-Shirt: Medium Black". Is there a way to do this?