Hello,
Yes you can publish the frontpage display to just the homepage. Just assign the module to whatever pages you want it to show on.
The tab show is built into the template and will only show when you publish modules to the positions inside of it. So following the tutorial:
http://www.shape5.com/demo/eden_rock/content/view/16/52/You first have to add the module positions: s5_tab1 and so on. Then take a module on your site, perhaps the login module and publish it to the s5_tab1 position. This will then make the s5 tab show appear.
Regards,