Digital BW, The Print

Dear members,

I have worked for some years now with B&W negative film and wet 
darkroom process. I really love my cameras and my B&W film choice and 
do not want (at least, for the moment) to change to digital cameras.

If I consider continuing with traditional film, I am moving to 
digital postprocessing. And here is were my ignorance starts :-)

I have bought a Minolta Dimage 5400 and started doing some 
experiences with it, but nothing more than that yet!

I would like to have all the help I can get on the following issues:

- What is the best procedure to take the maximum out of the negative 
with this scanner?
- Is there a workflow that I should follow in order to get the image 
ready to print?
- Which printer will fit me best (A4 and A3 prints)? Is it difficult 
to set the printer to print what I see in the computer LCD? What type 
of paper should I use?

I use Photoshop and I do some color stuff, sometimes. Is this 
procedure aplicable to color as well?

Thank you all in advance for sharing your knowledge with me.

Best regards,
Nuno Quinteira