Jeff, thanks for your speedy response. I think you are right, I need to relax a little. Personally I like the "existing angle and flet pen" approach. Obviously this is a matter of preference.
Now I have yet another question about setup. My brother-in-law gave me one of his plane blades to sharpen. It's a big one so it was easy to "measure stuff". I found out that the cutting edge is not perpenticular to the side of the blade; it has a slight bevel. I suspect he created this bevel trying to sharpen it himself on a bench grinder. In this situation do you go ahead and align it the side of the blade against the stops on the jig and grind unitl the edge is perpendicular to the side of the blade?
You've got it right. Align the blade to the pins and grind the tool square.
Some notes on plane iron sharpening.
Keep a small try square handy. Start by grinding only the long point of the angle, then blend the grind across to create a straight line. Check your work frequently and adjust your grinding to deliver a straight edge that is square to the blade. Take the left edge of the iron all the way to the right edge of the stone and vice versa, so that the center of the iron is off the stone just as much and the sides are.