There are a couple great editors out there that can handle the grunt work of DB manipulation for you, which is somthing that I reccomend you use first to get a feel for things.
First one is Kayot's Editor. It can edit a multitude of things in the db. It has some quirks, but is a very nice editor. Next would be all of GeorgeS tools. He has made countless tools for you to use and I recommend you try them out.
Kayot's Page
GeorgeS Page