New to Microgaming (Prima) - How to make it playable?

[eurythmech]

Hi, I have played a little on Prima in the past, but that was usually for a single tourney or so, and it was quite a while ago. However, in this month at least, I will be playing quite a bit there. So far I'm having a hard time seeing how I will manage this without going insane.
Are there ways to fix these, my biggest peeves so far:

* The tables are huge, is there a way to strip the right side chat list off at least? (And stop showing "> Dealing Hole Cards(2h 6d )
> ziddax wins 2,100" kind of stuff when I have "chat only" checked)

* The tables steal attention as soon as it's my turn. Who in their right mind would program a software to do this? Let alone keep it in place for 5 years or whatever it might be, and not include an option to remove it?

Thankful for any insightful responses and tips on mods.