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.
 

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