Button, thumbnail, and slide show

Hi, I haven’t been here for a while but since upgrading to MX2004 I am excited but confused with its features and interface changes.

I have 5 buttons, each button takes you to a series of thumbnail images. Click the thumb and a bigger view appears to the right of the series. Access another big view by either clicking the thumb or going through big views as a slide show with the typical arrows advance or previous. I have seen this at http://www.redsquarephoto.com/.

I comprehend doing the slide show from the tute on this site but how do I organize the rest to work with it?
Should all buttons be on the same layer or separate layers?
Should the thumbs be in the same MC as the big view or big view be another MC?
Should the thumbs with slideshowMC be a separate sfw to conserve file size?

Thanks, Gaz