Question: Can I make the hand stop when it runs into a certain body part?  Example: Making the palm stop on the character's hip automatically.
Answer: Yes.  In the upper right hand corner of the "Preview" window is a small arrow pointing to the right.  Right click it and a menu will popup.  On the bottom of the menu is an option for "Collisions".  Turn Collisions to "on".    Now go to the properties for your character's "hip" and turn on "Collision detection".  Now go to the properties for your character's "right hand" and turn on "Collision detection", now attempt to move the right hand through the hip. You can't.  This makes life much easier when posing.  Try it with the right leg/left leg as well.  NOTE: You may have to turn collision detection on/off in the top right menu, sometimes objects will get stuck inside each other.  I tend to juggle between collision detection on/off when posing.

Question: How do I move my characters hands only so that the arms follow the hand? 
Answer: Make sure that the left hand and right hand are checked under Figure---->Use Inverse Kinematics---> Left/Right Hand.  Now you can move the right/left hand around by using the xtran,ytran,ztran options under "parameters".

Question: How do I bend the knees?
Answer: Turn the left/right leg OFF under Figure ----> Use Inverse Kinematics ---> Left/Right Leg.  Now you should be able to bend the knee by selecting the characters shin.

Question: How do I move the characters leg around?
Answer: Select the characters foot and move it around using the xtran,ytran,ztran options under the properties window.  (This will not work if the inverse kinematics are off for the leg.)

I know this is basic stuff but I didn't figure it out for quite a while. I just learned how to use collision detection like a few minutes ago.

Zanzo