Startup disk drive is almost full. Need to release some space there.

bernardomne wrote:

. . .

Question 1: If I delete a file in my startup hardrive does that file get deleted in the time capsule?

Yes; not immediately, but sooner or later. Depending on how long it was on your system, and when backups have run, it could be as little as 24 hours or until the Time Capsule's disk gets full and it starts deleting old backups to make room for new ones.

Question 2: What would you recommed in order to release space in my hardrive without compromising my files?

If you're not sure what's using up all the space, see Where did my Disk Space go? If you find something big there, the problem may go away, at least for a while.

Your best bet might be to get a bigger internal HD for your Mac for the overflow. If not, you could get an external HD for it. Depending on what's taking up the space, you might be able to "archive" some of it to CDs/DVDs, but that's probably not a good solution for large amounts of data.