Video filter questions, using VideoStudio 11 plus trial

[Lion]

Hi, I just got a DVR that can turn my DV tapes into DVD, so I can finally start to edit my travel videos. I just have a few questions that I can not solve from experimenting, nor from the manual.

I downloaded the 11 Plus trial version, very happy with it, and amazed by the movie wizard function. In the trial version, I love the theme template called "multi_display01" in a "home movie" category, and in fact it's the only theme. It cuts the clip into four parts with four different tones. I have been trying to duplicate some of its effects on my own choice of clips. Here are the questions:

First of all, is it possible to preserve (i.e., save or copy) some video filter treatments and apply them to other clips? For example, I work out cropping and duotone on one clip, and want the same effects on clips right after it. The "copy and paste attributes" only carries over overlay positions and size, not the filter effects.

Second, also related, question is from my thinking of working around it since I can not copy the filter attributes. So to work around it, I think I can first put together the scenes that I want the same cropping and duotone effects on and apply those effects at once. But I can't seem to find a "joiner" function, a reverse of the "cut" (i.e. scissors) function, that can merge two clips into one.

Third, similar to the first question, is there a way to save the customized treatment of video filter for future use? For example, I like the four-tone effects in the "multi_display01" theme, but don't like the the "movie wizard's" choice of clips. Right now I can only manually add the cropping and duotone filters to the clips of my choice, adjust positions of cropping and the colors manually, and rinse and repeat on every clip thereafter. (Manually positioning the cropping windows precisely is quite hard and time consuming. Is there a better way for this too?) I wish I can simply save those customization for other clips, and even better, save the treatments for other clips in another project. Can we do that?

Thanks for your reading and any suggestions.