Car will not start

I have a 2000 mitsubishi mirage de 1.5
Recently I had picked up my kids from their godparents house and the car was running top notch, I was getting great fuel economy and it was peppy.
I parked it that night and the next morning when I went out to start it, nothing. So I thought the obvious, fuel pump. Replaced it and still nothing. I replaced the rotor, distributor cap, plugs, and wires. Was getting great spark the whole time and compression. It still wouldnt start. My buddy got an idea and swapped the plugs around on the distribution cap and it fired right up. Since the day I got it it always dragged when I tried to start it, took a few seconds for it to kick in. Once he swapped the plugs around I hit the key and it started right up.
One thing I am thinking but I am not to sure of. If the car started right as I hit the key when the plugs were swapped and before that it took a few seconds to start it up prior, is that it may have slipped a tooth or two in the timing before I had bought it and when I parked it the other night it just finished the rest of the way in jumping time.
If anyone has any ideas or if you happen to know how to reset the timing in case it had jumped, then I would greatly appreciate it. I am sure I can reset the timing back to the marks myself but I am not to sure about the whole compression thing. One buddy said to take the number one plug out, pop a shop rag in tightly and when it pops out that's the compression point.
I'm stuck riding my bike 5 miles into work right now and that thing is killing me, so if anyone can help I would greatly appreciate it!