Well I finally got the CK downloaded, and thehttp://www.creationkit.com/Bethesda_Tutorial_Layout_Part_1 hit a brick wall at the first step where you actually try to do something.

The tutorial reads: "To view categories of kits in the object window, expand the ‘World Objects’ category on the left side of the Object Window. From there, expand the "STATIC > Dungeons" categories."

OK, I go to the object window, open "World Objects", and I see three catagories with "Static" in them...one is simply "Static" and is unexpandable (and contains nothing containing the word "dungeon" in the name), and the others are "MoveableStatic" (empty) and "StaticCollection" (also emtpy)

Is the CK not yet completely implemented, or did I get a bad download?

Have you loaded skyrim.esm? It contains much of the data you will need to create a mod first.

It sounds like you forgot to open the master file. Click the Load Button on the top toolbar, and check Skyrim.esm and say okay. It may take a while to load, so be patient. Also, click Yes to any errors you get while loading then wait while it finishes.

Ah, I better log into the wiki and add that step to the start of the tutorial...it's supposed to walk you through it after all, and not assume you did something that no first time user of the software would know had to be done.

And why isn't "load" a menu option under the file menu? Sloppy interface...

It does walk you through that in the first tutorial, I thought.

And 'load' is there, it just says 'Data' instead, since you use that little 'loading' menu for more than just to load. You can also view esp/esm records and change some information.

Man this tutorial is terrible...not only did it not bother to refer back to loading Skyrim.esm, later on it says:

"Before we can do anything else, we need to create a space to work in. This is most commonly done by duplicating an existing cell. The cell you choose will bring over some data you may need to modify, but we'll deal with that later. For now, locate and right-click on the interior cell aaaMarkers (No indication of where to find it...it's in the "world" menu under "cells", and pick "interior" from the dropdown menu) and choose Duplicate Cell (Except there IS no "Duplicate Cell" option in the right click menu.) You should see a new cell appear in the Cell List just below it (With no "Duplicate Cell" option, nope!). Rename this new cell by selecting it and pressing F2. We'll call this dungeon LokirsTomb."

So given that even if you can find the cell, you can't make a copy of it, because the right-click option they tell you to use isn't there, it would be very bad to try to proceed any further, since you would have to overwrite an existing cell instead of making a copy to edit.

Whoever wrote this thing obviously assumes that the person doing the tutorial has the telepathic ability to locate things without being told where they are, use commands that aren't implemented, and other impossible feats.

I don't know what's happening there, because I've managed to use the "duplicate cell" function perfectly OK, I just tested to make sure I could duplicate that particular cell OK and I get the option when I right click that cell in the cell view pane, and it duplicates fine. The tutorial looks to be correct to me.

Edit to add: I've had a look at the tutorial - given what you say the tutorial didn't say to do and the issues you are experiencing, it looks like you started in the wrong place - go back to http://www.creationkit.com/Category:Getting_Started and follow the instructions from the very beginning, which includes the following "Double-click to select Skyrim.esm for load - indicated by an "X" in the box on the left - and select "OK", and then goes on to tell you to create a blank esp to work in - I wonder if maybe you haven't followed that part of the tutorial before starting to make your own changes?

Already went back and did that, or I wouldn't have had any cells in the cells panel...I figured part of it out, the "Duplicate Cell" command isn't implemented in the main cell page (under the menu World>Cell...) but it IS on the Cell view pane...but the tutorial doesn't SAY to use the Cell view pane, it just says to "find the cell", which I did, but in the wrong pane.

I've managed to copy the cell now, and delete the extra objects except the nav mesh (as instructed, but now I've hit another wall. It says to drag the room item into the render view...but when I do, the cell view panel goes from the renamed cell to "no cell selected" - obviously there is another undocumented step to force the renamed cell to stay as the "you're working with this cell" cell.