Finally solved all my known Outlook issues. Here are some tips for others who might have similar problems migrating email files to a new computer.
1. Download and pring the Outlook Help file mentioned above.
2. Think hard about whether you want to use a POP3 or IMAP protocol. It makes a huge difference. My last problem was that somehow my inbox got set up as an IMAP type, but the email account itself was POP3, which was what I wanted.
3. To keep from causing unintended type changes, I set up the account "bare" without reference to my old .pst files, then used the File/Open/Import command to bring in my old email and address book.
4. One remaining mystery is why sometimes when I do step 3, I get a dialog box that lets me choose which old email folders to import, and sometimes not. I eventually got what I wanted, so won't spend more time on this.