Don't worry, you are definitly not alone. When I first got into editing, understanding how to use keyframes was my biggest hurdle. It's not that it's complicated in Vegas, it's just that it is such a powerful tool that it takes awhile to learn to use it correctly. Start off simple. Just to learn the basics about how it works. Try this:

1.Open a blank Vegas project and insert a video track.
2.right click and choose "insert text media"
3.close the text box leaving the "sample project" typed in it
4.on the actual event on the tmeline, choose the pan&crop tool
5.look at the bottom of the pan/crop dialog box, you will see a "mini" timeline with a diamond at the begining, this represents the start of the clip. Also notice the shaded bar, this represents the length of the clip. At the end of the shaded bar is naturally the end of that clip.
5.single click somewhere at the halfway mark on the shaded bar, this will place a curser there. Then press the diamond icon that has a plus sign in it. This will add a keyframe at that point in the clip.
6. With that keyframe being selected, resize the video in your pan/crop window. making your text larger or smaller.
7. Now place your cursor at the end of the shaded bar. again press the "add keyframe" icon. resize your the video back to its original size.
8. Now close the Pan/Crop dialog box and and play back your video.

You will see the text smoothly adjust its size from the start to the middle and then back again to its original size untli the clip ends. What Vegas does is it evenly adjusts from one keyframe to another. So it starts out at it's original size and then adjusts itself until it reaches the size that you told it to in your middle keyframe and then back again to its original size that you dictated by your last keyframe. Think of each diamond placed on that timeline as an instruction for Vegas.

Note that the keyframe timeline in this case only represents the length of the clip you are working on. This will be true for any effect you want to keyframe that is added at the event level. Now if you add an effect on the track level and try to keyframe that, then the keyframe timeline represents the entire length of that whole track (every clip on it combined) This very simple idea was in fact my biggest point of confusion.

This excersize is of course very basic but it shows the main workings of a keyframe. Keyframes can be used with any effect and you will find that they are essential to limitless creativity. Basically just play around with them and note how they change the video when you add/change/delete keyframes. Good luck. -Shon

Have you tried looking around on DSE (SPOT's) site?

http://www.sundancemediagroup.com/home1.htm

To "move something across the screen" you typically would use track motion.
To move AROUND in an image you use pan and crop. The difference is the first effects the entire video and allows multiple videos on screen at once, so for example you could get the Hollywood Squares effect, having nine vids all shrunk down, all playing at once. Pan and crop is more typically used to move across a still image to simulate motion.

The concept of keyframes is really very simple once you do it a time or two. Look at a "keyframe" as a snapshot in time. For example to use pan/crop, click that button (event pan/crop) in any event. Make sure you have sync "locked".

Next work along as I walk you through it. Find any image of a single person standing. Drop it on timeline. Drag its edge so it takes up about 20 seconds or so on the timeline. You don't have to be exact.

Click on its event pan/crop button. In the FX work area You'll see an area that has nine handles surrounding the image with a big F in the middle.

Whatever is INSIDE the box will be what's selected. So if you wanted to pan across an image left to right or top to bottom, you position the box to place it where you want the pan to begin.

Using your sample image of some person standing right click on it in the work area and select 'match output aspect' The image depending on its size will probably jump and not all of it will show. Good, what we want.

Move your curson over into the box area so the cursor changes to a 4 headed arrow then while holding down your left mouse drag it around just to see the effect in the preview window. Once you're done playing around move it so it just shows the person's head.

Unless the image is the same size as your project you'll have either a border at the top/bottom or at the sides. You can adjust the size and zoom in by dragging any of the corner handles in towards the center on a angle. The more you drag a handle in the smaller the box (selected area) becomes and the larger the image appears in the preview window for the area you selected.

Adjust now so the person's head nearly fills the preview window.

Once you get it how you like it you set the first key frame. Just click the second from left icon and a little diamond gets added to the minature timeline in the work area.

Next while holding down your left mouse drag the box down to the person's feet. Click on the last keyframe icon. That's all you have to do to pan top to bottom. The reason I told you to drag the image out to 20 seconds or so is so the pan is slow and you see the effect.

Now click on the first keyframe again and hit play. Vegas should slowly pan top to bottom, first revealing the person's head, then move slowly down the body. You can move left to right applying the same guidelines.

To move an entire video across the screen use the same principles, just use 'track motion'. The first thing you do is shrink down the vid to a smaller size by dragging a corner of the blue box. As you shrink in a corner you'll see the entire vid shrink in the preview window. Now apply what you learned above and move the video accordingly.

Videomonster,
I'll add one or two little things more. My problem with pan/crop is that I don't get the cursor positioned on the timeline at the beginning of the clip before I hit the pan/crop button. So, my effect starts somewhere other than the beginning of the event and when I try to move back I get more diamonds (that was frustrating). To fix that, I first click on the event on the timeline that I want to pan/crop, hit the pan/crop button, then go down to the first key frame button (has the line on the left side of the diamond) and click on it, and then position the frame where I want it to start. That way, I'm at the beginning of the event. Then, after I'm done sizing/positioning the frame, I hit the end key frame button (line on the right side of the diamond) and size/position the frame. This helps me avoid the event going back and forth when I didn't want it to. Hope this helps.
Randy

On the left side of keyframe toolbar, there is a vertical "i-bar" icon that lets you sync or not sync the keyframe effect to the main Vegas timeline. If this is not selected, then keyframes do not get created automatically. While automatic creation is really useful sometimes, for new users it can create all sorts of surprises. If you want to pan across a still photo over a period of time, having Vegas create those keyframes as you move and re-size the pan/crop windows is great; if you don't want to keyframe an effect, or you want total control over the moment a keyframe takes effect, you may be better off disabling this control.

Thanks Johnmeyer. That will reduce my frustration. I had it clicked as that is what one of the tutorials said to do and I just never took it off. Appreciate the assist.
Randy

to add to all the excellent help everyone else has posted...

http://www.luciferjones.org/NewKeyframinginVegas.htm

Written by Mike Jones - extremely well written IMO - and in fact has been translated into Spanish if someone need the Spanish version!

He has number of tutorials, including one on surround mixing in Vegas 4.

Regards,

Paul

PDB,

Thanks. That's a site I hadn't seen before.

Here's the link to the guy's page that lists all of his tutorials:

Vegas Tutorials