Archive blog setting (code) question.

Hello WordPress Folks,

Currently setting up a typical blog page with custom styles. I have a side bar setup with search function and archive lists listed by month and category, pretty typical. But I need to figure out which is the best method or best naked theme that allows me to do this. More specifically calibrating the archive list both in PHP and styling in CSS.

How do I make the list of archived blog feeds cap at a min-height? If it overflows with more search results. How do I add a numbering page list at the bottom to help indicate the continuation of the search results.

Also, if you have some best practices for search form/search method functions in PHP to share that would be great!

Hope to hear from you soon!

Thanks!
-James