This should belong on the editing forum, but I'll answer it anyways:
1 - Keep trying. Editing Jedi Knight can be frustrating at first (and always), but once you get the hang of it, it's awesome.
2 - The tutorials are your best source for learning everything. Grab some time, open Jed and a tutorial, and work through it. If you have questions post on the editing forum. It's worth taking the time to learn it - JK editing is a lot of fun, and it would be a shame for you to miss out!
3 - First, get in Thing mode. There's a bunch of different buttons above the wireframe (sector, surface, vertex, thing, etc.) To insert new items, click your left mouse button where you want the item to be (in Jed's wireframe) and hit the Insert button on your keyboard. Make sure to switch to side views (shift+2 and shift+3 - shift+1 is top view) so as to make sure the item is in your level. Then, making sure the thing is in the level, and is selected (by default, selected items appear red), hit the enter key. It will bring up the item editor. Double click in the first box where it says the name of the item template, and it will bring up a selection screen where you can pick what item you want to change it to. This will work for walkplayers, weapons, ammo, health, etc.
-Jipe