All that Will said about the man pages is true, and I completely agree about the need for examples; I to have wasted hours fighting syntax errors, all the while with an ugly feeling that I might not even be trying the right command or option.
General advice based on things I've done: 1. Use less as you man pager, learn the search tools. 2. Start by searching manpages for 'example'. 3. Use info -- it will run man-pages for programs that don't have info pages, and programs that do have info pages usually have good documentation. 4. Remember to check the HowTos and the contents of /usr/doc/exasperating_command... some of the programs with the worst man pages have excellent manuals. Use zless to read .gz files. 5. Check out the Newbiedoc manual. 6. Invest in some good Linux reference books, I like the Oreilly series a lot. Night before last I ran 'find /usr/doc -name "index.html" >foo.txt' and then spent 2 hours adding links from foo.txt to my local home/start page. I found answers to 3 random trivial questions that have been bugging me; I'll never regret spending the time on this. HTH, Paul