Paradigms for a user built custom page?

Hello. I have a site with a lot of data (mostly regarding industrial
metal price history) spread across different pages (for each metal).
This data is mostly static html tables with some dynamic tables, some
charts/gifs, and some news (in the form of lists of headline links). I
would like each user to be able to build a custom page consisting of
only the data elements that they want to see and was considering ideas
on how a user could build (and edit) such a page. I have a few vague
possibilities such as:

1) Build a dynamic form with pulldowns for the various element choices.
2) Allow users to choose from a "site map" of the various elements.
3) Allowing the user to select from a few templates with limited custom
choices.
4) Add some header/footer to each data element to allow it to be added
to the custom page.

The user base is not technical, so I would not want to overwhelm them
with something too complex. So, if anyone has tried or seen some good
techniques for building a custom page, please post your suggestions.

Chris Quinn
chrisqu (AT) comcast (DOT) net