I have been away for a few days so labeartique your current items :-
1) ok
2) yes
3) yes
4) not so easy. Depends on the nature of the item, for books it seems unnecessary where the title is most important however the impression I get is that if you are selling e.g. cuddly toys or dresses a gallery picture should be included. In other words is the item visually attractive think would I buy on impulse seeing the image, if yes and the item is worth say at least 5 to 10x the value of an gallery image I would include it.
5) I am going to simplify my answer to this one by saying, photograph a batch of items at a time, upload all of them in one go and select them into your listings as you write them. This will save a lot of time but make sure you adopt a clear labelling system for your image files and use folders before it all gets out of hand.
6) Cor you are giving me some head scratching here !
I would create hyperlink text like everything in MS Word because my HTML is poor, and then copy and paste it into my listing or seller details and it all seems to work for me. I cannot be sure whether your HTML is correct or not but I am sure one of the other community members could check that out for you.
Regarding links, I was trying to sort that one out for myself the other day, as I understand it so long as your link directs buyers to items you have for sale on eBay whether directly or via your Auctiva store that is ok. I also beleive that you can link to your own site or page, what I see is a complete no-no is to coax buyers to a competitors selling venue.
Phew, bye for now got to catch up on my selling activities,
P.S. Regarding (5) let me know if you want some more specific advice and I will try and get back to you in the next couple of days.