The suggestion of setting up templates is a good one.
I think my main problem is with the page setup features. I figured out that going to page setup in the edit tab allows you to set the paper type, size, contols, etc. but it does not seem sticky. Sometimes it works, other times it seems that the settings don't get set. Then, if you don't use page setup, when you select print out of the right side panel, the page setup box comes up and you can enter the needed information. However, if you then select print from that pop up screen, your print starts printing, but you won't have set you page scaling yet, because that is up in the top section of the main panel but won't show the correct page size until you set the page settings in the pop up. If you don't select print, your selected settings don't seem to stick. It seems confusing between what get done in the Lr panel and what gets done in the printer setup boxes. In CS4 it's all done in the printer popup boxes and it is very clear what is getting done. Of course you can't add a border or do the other things that Lr will, but you will get your print right.
My angst Saturday, which caused me to fire off a negatively toned post, was this. I went to page setup and setup a quarter-sheet proof. This selected the paper type, size, printing mode and printer/ICC control. This was the setup box, not the print page box. I then slected enter and expected to go and setup the rest of my settings in the Lr panel. But no, it started printing a page, printing the wrong way with the wrong ICCs and the wrong scaling. (Which I had not set yet.) In hind sight, it is probable that I selected 'print page' instead of 'page setup' though I've leaned to be carefull about this. They are right above one another in the pull down list. I'm not really sure, but each time I go through this I seem to find a different way to do the same thing and therefore never seem to set up a reliable workflow.
I'll work on the templates.