Hi,
I am also basically a newbie with php and mysql but I have come across
some very helpful tutorials in my net explorations, one of which
teaches you how to create a great one page administration environment
for a mysql database.
Below is a link to a page I set up to begin organizing my learning,
with links to the tutorials mentioned above as well as my own
improvements on the admin environment tutorial also mentioned above.
http://www.mecgrassroots.org/php/phphowto/phphowto.html
Let me know if this is useful. Your question inspired to finally sit
down and get started documenting my php/mysql learning.
Dale