Best advice - find yourself a local Linux User Group (LUG) and subscribe - you will pick up plenty of tips and can post your queries. Linux users are so nuts about their OS that they love helping people get into it.
Can't say about RH8 - I'm now into SuSE - but love Kmail, StarOffice, and mcedit for editing files.
In fact mc is a great tool for lots of things. Have fun!