stumped!

Hi,
I’m putting together a WP site for a charity, and I’m a bit stumped on two issues, that may possibly be related.

Firstly, I downloaded a free theme that I’ve modified with my own artwork (i.e. no messing about with the code). This theme gives me a choice between a 2 column or 3 column layout, and I can alter at will. I prefer the 2 column. What I want is the content on the left, and the sidebar on the right. Sidebar is to contain a couple of widgets (i.e a PayPal donate button etc), and any other links, perhaps to nested pages etc.

However, when I select the 2 column option, only the PayPal widget appears. The other boxes containing links, admin etc, doesn’t show. They only show if I select the 3 column layout, but I don’t want the 3 column layout. I don’t know where to look to find the code I need to change this (or quite what to do if I find it).

Secondly, I successfully created some nested subpages, BUT I don’t seem to have any links to them on the parent pages. Why is this? I’m guessing that the links to the subpages would maybe appear in the boxes that I’m not getting in my sidebar?

Any help muchly appreciated. Thanks.