Ahh! So many questions to answer!
Okay, for the content hiding bug:
In my original code, i first hid the page content completely, before performing the transition. I think the bug occured because the hide function was, for some reason, delayed until after the slide-in function.
I solved this simply by performing the hide part under a window.load trigger, and the slide-in under DOM.ready. This seems to have solved the problem for me, but if you're not using mootools then the bug could have completely different causes...
The project is based around graphic design, and apparently there are marks based on "is the eportfolio a graphic product in its own right." This is why i've let the course and my professional design mix with each other...
From what i can tell: the criteria is:
No more than 25MB
All links involve relative paths, and work...
Functions at some resolution which i can't remember right now...
Yes, my teacher too encouraged the use of tables... Much to my horror!