Here is some info that might help getting around in Blender.  The mouse controls: hold down the midle button/scroll wheel to rotate, shift midle button/scroll wheel to pan up/down and left/right.

The numpad  is very usefull as well.  On the numpad: period/del will center on what ever you have selected and make it the center of rotation.  hitting the 1,3,and 7 will give you the front side and top view. Holding the control key down with 1,3, and 7 gives you the back, the otherside and the bottom. The numpad 5 key togles between perspective and orthographic.

 

The best way I have to deal with the camera. rotate and pan the view until you get close to where you want it. Now hit control, alt, numpad 0. This will bring the camera to you. It puts you in the camera view. Now to fine tune it. Hit shif F. This will let you steer the camera. Scrolling in this mode will let you zoom in and out.  Moving the mouse  will cause the camera to swing up/down and side to side.  Hold the midle mouse button down in this mode will let you pan the cammera. When you get the cammaera where you want it just left click the mouse to exit this mode.  Oh yea and hitting the numpad 0 key will toggle you in and out of camera mode.

Hope this helps ya

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"The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination".

Albert Einstein