I'm new to Blender (3 days) but have come from many years of modeling in 3ds Max.  I've been reading as much documentation on Blender as I can starting right at the basics.  I have also been looking for Max equivalents in Blender to make the learning as 'familiar' as possible.  I  know I will have many questions as I work through Blender so I hope you will put up with another noobie asking some probably basic and obvious questions.  So here goes:

1.  I  have learnt about edge loop selection with Alt+RMB.  Is there a way to make a ring selection?
2.  If I make a vertice, edge or face selection can I grow or shrink the selection?
3.  If I split the workspace up into the typical top/front/side/perspective windows is there a way to maximize any one of these four views with a shortcut key toggle and then return the view to the four window configuration?

This will do for starters.  I'm looking forward to joining in this community as I am very impressed with the capabilities of Blender.
 

1. http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Doc:Manual/Modelling/Meshes/Edge_and_Face_Tools

2. CTRL + "+" on NUMPAD to grow selection
       CTRL + "-" on NUMPAD to shrink selection

3. CTRL + UP Arrow to expand the view containing the the cursor

NUMPAD "." frames the current selection also has the benefit of letting you rotate the view around the current selection rather than the base coords, a temporary override and very handy.

Not being rude with the wiki link, just has additional pertinent info concerning selections that you might find useful.

Welcome Keppel, 

I moved from Max (version 3.1 with Character Studio 2.2) a few years ago, most of the functionality you are used to is in Blender somewhere, it's just a matter of finding it  :).

The top link I found as a blender newb was the key map...

http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Doc:Reference/Hotkeys/Map

Good luck and I look forward to seeing your work

Speaking of BlenderNewbies, their browser toolbar is a great way to keep up with Blender info plus they've added general animation tips & tricks RSS feeds along with a few other general CG related topics to supplement the Blender feeds. All in all it's a handy resource.

Thank you both for your help.  I've printed out the keyboard short cuts for reference and checked the "Edge and Face Tools" link which was very helpful.  Once I find the common equivalent tools in Blender that I am used to in Max I will feel more comfortable. 

And if you want the manual in PDF format for reading offline......
http://www.letworyinteractive.com/b/2009/02/blender-wiki-pdf-manual-from-january-29th-2009-2/

3dtrc,

Thanks for that link to the manual.  A single document with 1300+ pages I'm sure it will prove to be a great resource.

And also...you might be interested in the Blender Art Magazines...issue 20 was just published online today.

http://www.blenderart.org/issues/

Each issue comes with a separate download of support .blend files also!
I have all 20...a great resource also to have for off line reading.
Enjoy.

welcome aboard , remember if you find bugs report them to blender.org   :)