Ahh, the days long ago of AOL RP. I know those days well. It is much easier! And once you figure out the basics, super easy. So, no worries - you'll catch on soon.
No worries! It's actually rather simple once you get the basics down. If you're just starting out there's a tutorial that was posted not long ago about coding basics (here). The typography tutorial, table cheat sheet, guide to making a simple S2 layout (I think splott's community kerning has some resources about making S1 layouts, too) , and this website would also come in handy.
No problem. If I don't answer within a day or something just e-mail me. I'm terrible about remembering to reply to things after I mark mu mail as read.