What are the techniques in photographing highly reflective objects such as silver or steel, so as to avoid getting the reflections of everything around it? How do I ensure correct exposure?

How can I make the most out of the nine focussing points within the image area? Say when I take landscape pictures, I select automatic with all nine points, for portraits and one subject, I pick the one at the middle, or set focus then re-frame. Often I do not feel I am making use of the other eight points. Is that a bad habit on my part, or should I learn to make use of this feature?

May I know what's the major difference from the print out between your ink-jet type printers and thermal printers ?