Component Help

How do I add a cross as between my add comment & view comments?

How do you add those awesome components on the side...like log in & weather & LJ links? Do you have to know a lot about HTML?
I want to add some random quotes too but some of my own.

Please excuse me if this has been asked before!

I don't remember changing anything, but all of a sudden I've got my free text component coming up twice in my side bar. If I turn it off in the customization area, I lose both boxes. I really only want one. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Okay, so here's my problem:

Right now I *want* my comment links to say either '1 Star' or '# Stars', so I customized it to:

1 Star // # Stars

No matter how many comments I actually have (if I have any), it always says '1 Star'.

Please help; this is extremely frustrating to me. Thanks in advance. :)

Help again....
I'm trying to alter the width of my components so they don't take up the *entire* screen, but when I do the

.entryHolderBg{
width:70%;
}

the entries themselves narrow down to a thin line, the entry holder itself remains the same, like you can see here.

Anyone have any idea what I'm missing?

Where are the codes for changing color information on the components and things, without having to change the colors manually (meaning switching to new ones), so that I can just do quick and easy layout changes?

Like link changes and stuff.

Also, is it possible to change the colors of the scrollbar? Am I able to use CSS?