I’m following the tutorial provided on www.blender.org (here’s the link http://download.blender.org/documentation/htmlI/ch04s02.html) to make my first figure, Gus the gingerbread man. There’s a question though and I can’t continue until I know for sure. The tutorial doesn’t say in which view I’m supposed to extrude the arm and leg. Nor does it say if I’m supposed to extrude edges or vertices. Am I lacking some sort of patch or do I need a mouse with a middle mouse button to alter the 3d view (when extruding the leg)?
Hi Bail, hopefully you’ve worked that one out by yourself. If you haven’t - suggest you make the model in front view = that’s number 1 on the key pad. When you extrude you have more choices. Region is what you want. If you choose Edges, it will extrude like walls without a floor [or roof]. If you choose vertices, you’ll get points without faces. Don’t be afraid to just try things. If it doesn’t work as you expect, hit the Ukey to undo. Have fun 
That cleared things up. Thank you