Yes, you can attach the tablet to the laptop with a lead. One end will look like a normal (large) USB connection, the other will be a small USB plug. It will have come with something you can use to recharge the battery. If it is a mains plug, you might be lucky and have one where the lead is the same one you need to connect the tablet to the laptop, otherwise the lead which allows you to recharge the battery from the laptop is the same one you use to transfer data from one to the other.
If by shortcut you mean can you transfer your saved passwords on the laptop to the tablet, the answer is no. Apart from anything else, the places where they are stored on the two devices will be different, and as like as not they will be stored in different formats on the two. so as you use each new app on the tablet, you enter the password and allow the tablet to remember the password. That will be automatic for email addresses, and should also be automatic for other apps which need a password.
You should be able to transfer documents, images and the like from your laptop to the tablet. Once attached to the laptop, the tablet will appear as an extra drive on the laptop (I'm assuming the laptop runs a version of Windows). Just use the file managenent facilities of Windows to copy things from the laptop to the tablet or vice versa. The most likely folder names you will need to use on the tablet are Documents (for, well documents), Pictures and Music. There will also be a folder called DCIM which holds another folder called Camera - that's where photos taken on the tablet get stored.