archive: monthly vs. numeric

Help–
I’m trying to find out how to undo the monthly archive scheme. I reset the permalink structure to numeric and re-specified the sidebar archive display setting from (‘type=monthly’) to (‘type=numeric’). I then uploaded an xml feed with no date references. One of the articles appeared on the home page as “Latest”, but nothing was listed under “Archives” in the sidebar.
What I want to accomplish is a list of posts under “Archives” so they can be selected by title. I am presenting 1 post per page so that only one will print. It would also be useful to be able to include a link somewhere on the page to the ‘next’ or ‘previous’ article (as in Serendipity).
If I’m stuck with monthly archives it would be useful to be able to access more than one post per month or category without displaying all on one page.
I got the impression from other discussions that it may be possible to reset the archive setting by going to the generic theme or by editing .htaccess.
Suggestions, please??
Peteski