Featured Content Question

I placed a featured content widget in the header of all pages in my website. There are 7 different fc widgets, one for each main section of the site. Only the home page has multiple images and displays a slide show. I created separate posts, each with one of the images I want to display.

1. Is this the only/best way to set up slide show?

2. How can I change the link that’s automatically associated with each image?

3. How can I display slide show images in the order I want? No matter how I list their permalinks, it doesn’t alter how they’re displayed.

4. If I want to create a second featured content widget in the content area of a particular page, (how) can I do that?

Thanks.