I learned the Fire Breath shout and then killed a dragon but the shout is still locked. If I click on it a message pops up saying dragon souls a required to unlock shouts.

When I killed the dragon the animation showed me absorbing the dragons soul.

Actually I have another should for calming and killed a dragon after get that word and same thing can't unlock.

you have to spend the soul...

This weirds me out. When I go to it, it tells me exactly how to unlock on the UI at the very bottom. Does yours not do this?

While in the Magic screen go to your shout and highlight the shout you want to activate. On the bottom left side there should be instructions on how to use a dragon soul to unlock the shout.

In the magic section it says 2 souls on bottom right. I'll load game again and look at the instructions again.

Ok, I'm and idiot. Didn't see Press R to unlock.

Thanks for making me go back and look again.

Eh, don't feel bad. We've all done something stupid, trust me.