For those of you that may be having the same issues, I have worked around or corrected 2 of my 3 problems. I thought I'd pass it on since, so far, no one seems to be able to give support on these.
1. The issue with BOX_INFORMATION_ALLPRODS showing as the link instead of "Product Index", per the installation instructions 5a) ADD this to catalog/includes/languages/english.php. I am sure it depends on how osCommerce was installed but I had to add this step to my english in another directory. Mine was in /includes/languages/english.php (In my root directory, NOT in my catalog/includes).
2. Since I couldn't get advise on why pages in the alphabetical listing without items showed "TEXT_NO_PRODUCTS" instead of No Items Found" or something similar I decided to correct that by just adding items to my catalog that started with a Q & Z. I know this may not work for everyone but thought it was an easy fix.
I'm still in need of figuring out how to eliminate the duplicate items in my product list. I see so many responses to questions that seem far more complicated so I can't figure out why no one can help with this.
Any help is GREATLY appreciated!