Good post! Many people getting their first bitcoins need to know this stuff.
When I did this years ago, I bought a used IBM Thinkpad for $100 and that is my paper wallet computer. It is never hooked to the Internet , and the bitaddress.htm file was saved to a USB thumb drive from my regular 'net PC, and said USB was used to launch the paper wallet web page offline on the Thinkpad. The other thing I did is not encrypt my paper wallets. Why? Simplicity... what if my state of mind is different 20 years from now? What password? Where did I put that separate piece of paper? What if there is an issue accessing a suitable decryptor? My way is equivalent to storing cash. Hide it well. You can make your paper wallets fire & water proof by etching the private keys on a piece of metal.
RE: Paperwallet