phpMyAdmin.. help getting started

okay… so i’m pretty confused.
i “seem” to have phpmyadmin installed correctly, but i dont think i installed it in the right place. since i can only view php files locally from my “private” or “public” folders, i made a copy of the whole phpMyAdmin folder, and placed a copy of it in my “private” folder… something tells me thats not right… but at least i can view the phpMyAdmin web interface.

if anybody could clear that up for me, i’d appreciate it…
but more importantly, now that its installed… how do i go about making a database?

could anybody list the steps of creating one using phpmyadmin? i saw a partial example in another thread… but it was for editing an existing db. the SIMPLEST example would be appreciated…

right now, i’m so lost… and even though i really know NOTHING about databses (yet) - i get the impression using phpmyadmin is pretty simple…

i know i need to create passwords, users, and tables and rows and stuff, “somewhere”…
but right now, after hitting “create new database”, i just dont know what to do… :-/