The Monitor window in the upper right is where you see the timeline in action. It's mostly a media player, though one with a lot of control. I don't generally do anything fancy with it.
The Monitor to the left of it (in the middle) is for looking at the full files you imported into your project window. You can scroll through the big files and choose the section you want to clip, then drag it onto your timeline. I find this very handy, and it means I don't have to make a billion clips anymore.
Just double-click a video file from the project window and it should open there. Scroll through using the bar at the bottom (just like the timeline window) to find what you want. Then use the little wavy brackets (without arrows) at bottom left to set the In Point and the Out Point. Then that section will be highlighted in gray. Now just click the image in the window above it and drag it to your timeline. You can also drag it to your Project window if you'd like to make clips for later. There you can rename it by clicking on the name, so that it doesn't get confusing.
Behind that middle preview monitor is the Effects Controls window where you get to experiment with all of the effects settings. I can try to answer any specific questions about effects if you have them.
The default effects window for each clip will have Motion and Opacity. Motion contains the position and scale of the clip, Opacity is pretty straighforward.
Only other really basic thing that might be confusing at first is how to apply transitions like Cross Dissolves or Wipes, or what have you.
To do that click on the Effects tab in the Project window, open up the Video Transitions folder and sub folders to find the transition you want, then drag it to either end of the clip you want it added to.
If the clip you drag it to is butted up against another clip, Premiere will automatically use those two clips as the A and B sources, but you won't get to see in the timeline exactly what its doing. I like to make sure the clip I'm adding it to (say a cross dissolve) isn't touching another clip on that end. Then whatever clip is underneath that clip will show through as the clip either raises or lowers it's opacity.
Clicking on the purple triangles with the arrow (Selection Tool) will let you drag the effect to a longer or shorter duration, just like changing the length of the clip itself. If you click the purple triangles you will also get the transition itself to show up in the Effect Control tab in the middle window.
I think I'll stop there for now. Feel free to throw specific questions at me if this is enough to get you started, or let me know what's still tripping you up.
Also you may want to consider playing with the Auto Save preferences under Edit, Preferences. It's nice to have back-ups if the program does crash, etc. I set it to save a version anywhere from every 5 to 10 minutes, and I have it make up to 5 versions. The files will show up in a folder in whatever directory you have your project file saved.
Premiere Part 2
The Monitor to the left of it (in the middle) is for looking at the full files you imported into your project window. You can scroll through the big files and choose the section you want to clip, then drag it onto your timeline. I find this very handy, and it means I don't have to make a billion clips anymore.
Just double-click a video file from the project window and it should open there. Scroll through using the bar at the bottom (just like the timeline window) to find what you want. Then use the little wavy brackets (without arrows) at bottom left to set the In Point and the Out Point. Then that section will be highlighted in gray. Now just click the image in the window above it and drag it to your timeline. You can also drag it to your Project window if you'd like to make clips for later. There you can rename it by clicking on the name, so that it doesn't get confusing.
Behind that middle preview monitor is the Effects Controls window where you get to experiment with all of the effects settings. I can try to answer any specific questions about effects if you have them.
The default effects window for each clip will have Motion and Opacity. Motion contains the position and scale of the clip, Opacity is pretty straighforward.
Only other really basic thing that might be confusing at first is how to apply transitions like Cross Dissolves or Wipes, or what have you.
To do that click on the Effects tab in the Project window, open up the Video Transitions folder and sub folders to find the transition you want, then drag it to either end of the clip you want it added to.
If the clip you drag it to is butted up against another clip, Premiere will automatically use those two clips as the A and B sources, but you won't get to see in the timeline exactly what its doing. I like to make sure the clip I'm adding it to (say a cross dissolve) isn't touching another clip on that end. Then whatever clip is underneath that clip will show through as the clip either raises or lowers it's opacity.
Clicking on the purple triangles with the arrow (Selection Tool) will let you drag the effect to a longer or shorter duration, just like changing the length of the clip itself. If you click the purple triangles you will also get the transition itself to show up in the Effect Control tab in the middle window.
I think I'll stop there for now. Feel free to throw specific questions at me if this is enough to get you started, or let me know what's still tripping you up.
Also you may want to consider playing with the Auto Save preferences under Edit, Preferences. It's nice to have back-ups if the program does crash, etc. I set it to save a version anywhere from every 5 to 10 minutes, and I have it make up to 5 versions. The files will show up in a folder in whatever directory you have your project file saved.