phpMyAdmin

[Stephen Tiano]

Anyone familiar with the GUI interface for MySQL/PHP called 'phpMyAdmin'?

I'm at a point in my intensive self-study via books, tutorials, and 
exercises where one of the books I'm working with--trying to tie 
together with my graphical HTML editor--Dreamweaver: PHP 
Development--suggests phpMyAdmin is worth knowing as a tool for more 
efficient work in a production environment.

When I get phpMyAdmin to show up in my browser, it looks pretty much the 
way the book shows it. Except that, after a few lines that are 
word-for-word with the book, in place of

  [bullet] Run SQL query/queries on ...

and a flexible field in which to type in said queries, I have an error 
message:

  [bullet] Error
           The additional Features for working with linked Tables have 
               been deactivated.
           To find out why, click here.

Clicking 'here' brings me to a link to 'Documentation' and a line 
underneath saying 'General relation features Disabled'. Clicking on 
'Documentation' brings me to what looks vaguely like directions for 
altering various '$cfg' strings.

Needless to say, I'm leery. I'm not certain where to find these strings 
to alter. But more importantly, I'm not clear on what I'm being told to 
do. It's not as if the directions are step-by-step for a novice. And it 
doesn't spell out whether this will address the 'General features' being 
'Disabled'. That is, will it make these 'General features' functional?

May I ask your help in doping this out?

Thank you.

Steve Tiano