I am having severe trouble

Hi all. I am having trouble making this Gel Button tutorial http://www.noiz22.com/pages/tutorials.html
I usually can figure things out for myself and searched the web for basic instructions and been working at this for 2 days now. When I open a new doc and make a new layer, then a gel button, I can get all the way to contracting it by 4 pixels, and thats as far as I can get. I can no longer select and contract it to 2 pixels. Sometimes when I start over I can't even get it to do the gradient fill. It won't let me edit/fill the button with color,gradient or select/modify/contract. I ctrl-click the button but it wont work. I have searched for a reset to default thinking maybe it was a setting or something but nada. This proggy is very complex and frusterating as heil. Any help would be appreciated.:confused:

I just make a rounded rectangle >> linear gradient >> select layer and subtract section then just fill the subtracted section with color white and then disselect and guassian blur, adjust opacity... I'll see if I can find some sample tutorial when I get home


Cheers.

Edited>>

Try the tut at
http://robouk.mchost.com/tuts/ps.php

or
http://www.eyesondesign.net/pshop/plastic_button/button1.htm

And my favorite tut on plastic/pill is
http://www.eyeball-design.com/fxzone/tutorial.htm

Hope you find them useful

Yes, they are probably the most extensive tutorials I have found yet. They offer more step by step procedures so that I can get the hang of using the tools correctly. Thanks X-fusion.
:D