Adjust the padding entry in this in your stylesheet - 0 should work
Code:
.leftBoxHeading, .rightBoxHeading {
margin: 0em;
background-image:url(../images/box000.gif);
background-repeat: no-repeat;
padding: 20px;
}
1.a) how do i get rid of that text altogether, i am considering using images with the name of the box painted on, will i have to add stuff to the code to do that?
There is a tag for each header/sidebox and you can apply images there and remove the default in the english.php from - 'Whatever' to just the single quotes
' '
2. What can I do to put a few pixels of padding between the sideboxes?
Can add margin-bottom or top or both to the css for .leftBoxContainer, .rightBoxContainer tags