Kurt, good luck with your panoramas and triptychs. As Hans has indicated, you will probably find it easier to join your shots together if you avoid using a wide angle lens, although that won't be so much of a problem for triptychs.
I believe that the alignment, and angle of coverage, does change slightly when the focus is altered. For that reason, I have always relied on depth of field around the hyperfocal distance, at a small aperture, to include relatively close objects in a panorama. Try to avoid having a close object overlapping shots to be joined.
The most critical factor is to keep the frame as level as you can.
I am constructing a website to display some of my photographs, and I have included a few panoramas. You can see them at
www.shutterstone.co.uk and I'm sure you will be able to spot room for improvement!
The shot of Mount Robson is made from three frames with a P50 f1.4, and the Grey Corries image is from seven shots with a Hoya 200 f4, from the era of glue and a sharp knife.
For printing a panorama, I combine several onto a single file, with an aspect ratio which matches the formats available at the online printing outfits.
Enjoy yourself, and I hope you'll be searching for a source of long narrow picture frames.
John Keery, United Kingdom