Help Customizing PictureSlides for newcomer.

Help Customizing PictureSlides for newcomer.

Hi. I'm trying to customize the PictureSlides plugin ( http://robertnyman.com/picture-slides/) for my site, and I have a few questions. I have also directed these at the plugin's developer, but I don't think I'll hear from him for awhile since he's on summer leave from email and so forth. 

Sadly, I'm not a web designer and going about customizing PictureSlides (and my site in general) has been a slow and fairly confusing process. Below are a few burning questions I have specifically about customizing PictureSlides that would be really helpful to have answered. 

I apologize in advance for how basic my questions must be -- I've been at this for less than a month now. Any help would be greatly appreciated. 


--------so here we go---------- 

1)   How do I make the vertical images centered to the horizontal ones rather than having the top of the vertical image touch the top of the horizontal? I also have square images in some sections, and it would be nice if they could align similarly. 


Like this: 


Not this: 


2)  It would be nice to have the prev/next navigation located directly on the image so that the left half of the image is prev and the right, next.  And I'd like to install hover-over arrows in the lower left and right corners of the images. Since I am using vertical, square and horizontal images, is it possible to have the clickable area conform to the dimensions of each new image and divide them into prev and next halves? Please refer to the previous "like this" for an example of what I mean. 


3) What would be the best way to assign the prev/next navigation functions to  small icons as well as the larger click-on-the-image buttons I discussed above?


4) How would I implement a thumbnail button that loads the thumbnails on a new layer but in the same position as the full-size slide image area (and using the same image transition)? I want the thumbnail image to 'remember' what image was last active so that the user could just go back to the same image upon hitting the thumbnail button again. Here's an example of the functionality I like:  http://www.tinyvices.com/gallery/132883?page=portfolios (click on the thumbnail icon in the navigation bar to activate the thumbnails)