Peter, yes to the latter. The controls from the upper helm connect to the controls at the pilot house. Then the other cable runs to the transmission and throttle.
The adjustment that takes a few minutes to figure out is how far out from the pivot point the connections have to be.
You want both sets of controls to move the same so the cable connecting upper and lower should be identical.
The connections for the transmission and the throttle have to be played with so that the amount of movement in the controls conform to the amount of movement in the engine room.
If you don’t get it right the first time, you are not alone.
Also, yes to the former. As they say, whatever floats your boat.
Instructions are online, example here
http://www.seastarsolutions.com/wp-c...rev-12-091.pdf
John