star wars galaxies questions

I don't have access to alt.games.starwarsgalaxies yet so I thought I'd post
it here. I'm having a few problems that have gotten me to the point of
nearly quitting, despite loving the graphics and seeing a lot of potential
in this product.

I keep finding my navigating difficult; I'll be running around, and able to
use the mouse to change view, then click so it doesn't move the camera, and
i can just use the mouse to click on the buttons at the top, and back again
for a while; then suddenly it sort of locks so that the mouse can only
change view/running direction, and none of the buttons will respond.For
example, control-o won't open options. This is not good when you are being
attacked and need to look behind you for example! At other times, the
keyboard will start working as per the map on pg 48-49 of the manual.

Also, I maxed out my first level of pistol and have managed to get no money
so far, and the trainer is 1000 credits. I have heard a pc can teach me for
nothing but when i type "/" to see who is on, nothing happens. I am used to
eq so I have tried changing the keymap to eq and back again. Nope. I don't
know how to look for someone who is being helpful, and I am a wookie, and
either my shouts are being ignored or misunderstood. Maybe I should start
again as a human?

I have to admit I was a lot more comfortable with EQ; enter to open and
close chat seems reasonable, and just pressing "1" to activate a macro is
lot easier than ctl-1, which sometimes doesn't work. Note, the keyboard
works fine with other games, it's not like the keys themselves are the
issue.

Also, does "jump" do anything useful? I keep coming up to tiny barriers that
I realistically should step over without a second thought, but they stop my
character dead. I tried jumping them as in EQ but jump only seems to work if
you are stationary, so that you can never jump over a ledge to escape a
stormtrooper, for example.