> First - Some of the logbook entries should not be viewed by certain users.  
> What would be the easiest way to restrict viewing some entries?  

The easiest way is to define two logbooks, with two different password files.
The more restricted logbook contains only those users who are allowed to see the
restricted entries. Use the commands "Move to" to move entries between the two
logbooks (see documentation).

> Second - I have a welcome page for the ELOG that lists some info about the 
> ELOG.  When I start the ELOG, the user sees the login page.  After the user 
> logs in, the welcome page appears listing the restrictions.  Right now, I 
> have a hyperlink that takes the user to new, find, etc.  But I would like 
> to take the user right to the logbook and not have to come back to the 
> welcome page everytime.  How can I do this?

Right now you need an exteral page on a public webserver. This page contains
then links to your elog server. I the next version I will implement the
possibility to server *.html files directly through elog. You can then put your
welcome page under themes/default/Welcome.html, and access it through the
starting link:

http://your.elog.server/logbook/Welcome.html

You will only see the Welcome page once, since all links in elog will point back
to .../logbook/ and not to .../logbook/Welcome.html. The config option "Welcome
page = Welcome.html" you have to remove then of course.