There is a manual on the SH4 disk, it's not much help but covers the basics.
About the only suggestion I can make is to go to one of tutorials and play around with all the various tools and commands to see what they all do.
There are no instructions given in the tutorials, they are just training missions.
You can find some help here:
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=107783
also try this link
http://forums.ubi.com/eve/forums/a/t...5/m/4351073726
Also here:
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=108931
It all seems complicated at first but you will soon get the hang of it, just stick with it. The Sim is well worth the effort.
Magic