Removing comment boxes

Relatively easy. You need a Page template that doesn’t have the call for the comments template.
(more: Pages > see the templates section)

A quick practical guide:
Open your page.php template file and save it as – with another name.
Delete this line:
<?php comments_template(); // Get wp-comments.php template ?>
Add the lines on the top of it as described in the article linked above.

Go Manage Pages and select this new template for your Contact Page.

In WP 2.2, on Manage Pages, I don’t see how to select the new template for your Contact Page. How would I do that?

You need to have at least 2 (two) Page templates for that gizmo to appear: the default page.php AND another one. The latter one needs those lines at the top… saying it’s a template!

Oops. it is NOT in Manage Pages but in edit or write Pages.

It seems to be that all I have to do is to remove this line:
<?php comments_template(); // Get wp-comments.php template ?>

Then, change the name of my page template to, say, contact, and save it under that name.

Finally, above my contact page template’s code, add this:

<?php
/*
Template Name: Contact
*/
?>

Is that correct?

Yes, that should do it. If you have that file and the page.php in the theme folder – then while writing Pages you should have on the right sidet the option to select a Page Template.

Thank you. This was quite helpful.