You could always use one of the analog sticks to move the cursor. I've been using a program called Pinnacle Game Profiler (PGP) to allow me to use the 360 controller as a mouse, haven't touched my mouse in literally 4 years. Right trigger = left click, Left trigger = right click, etc...
Yeah, I want to know this too. I levelled smithing hardcore to get some nice Light gear but when I put a point in scale/plate crafting the scale armour has worse stats than the elven, and I don't get any "plate" recipes anywhere. I don't really know what's going on there.
Still, going to wear scale over Elven because I don't like mincing around looking like a daft knob out of LOTR.