hi flo.
glad you got yourself a copy of photoshop. need some clairification.
1) not sure what you mean by whitebox? when you go to file>new, you should get the options to have a new document with a transparent background or a white background.
2) which extra tools do you mean? if its stuff particuarily for image optimisation, you might want to select
file>jump to imageready
imageready will load and import your document from photoshop
post more info and il try to help if nessecary
ben