Struggling with tutorials

I'm trying to work my way through the Hands On tutorials but I keep getting stuck as things don't seem to work they way they are supposed to. I cannot figure out what I am doing wrong.

So a few questions:

1. In the animated pig tutorial it asks me to insert a frame at frame 50. My timeline only has 27 for some reason and I cannot figure out how to add any more.  It does not help that the tutorial window is very small and I cannot actually see well what is going on inside it.

2. In the Hello Kid tutorial it asks me to insert a keyframe at frame 7 and modify the pose. So far, so good, and the character moves just fine. Then it asks me to insert "another frame" (it does not specify whether this is a keyframe, a blank frame or what).  I've tried both. Then it asks me to copy the initial frame and paste it at frame 15 so I can get a smooth looping motion. Instead, i get smooth motion to frame 7 and then it freezes until frame 15 when it jerks into the new position. Why has nothing tweened here?

I have to be honest, I have been trying in various ways over the past two weeks to learn this program. I have used Premiere for years (and even cut a feature length documentary on it) and I have often used Photoshop and Audition, and to a lesser extent After Effects, Illustrator and InDesign. This is the first Adobe application where nothing seems to work or make sense.  I thought I would try the basic hands on tutorials since I was having issues with other tutorials. I'm really frustrated to the point of wondering if it is worth it.  Sorry for the whingeing--I'm just frustrated.