newbie in trouble, how to extrude sideways

#1

I recently was refered to this program and thought it looked better than the sorts of things I was used to, and reading the tutorials it seemed easier as well, however, having made a decent enough start on a tutorial I found giving a step by step guide to creating a ‘gingerbread man’ figure, things have gone slightly wrong. I have managed to subdivide the cube into eight parts and set it to mirror my edits on the other side, then I am told to select the top corner of the cube and extrude it out 1.5 squares to create the arms. I selected the points I was told to, pushed the E button to start extruding, and for some reason, it only lets me move up and down, rather than sideways as I am told.
How do I set it to extrude these squares out to the sides? the tutorial keeps on as though this would not happen, and I have read back through a few times without finding where I have gone wrong, so all I can do is hope someone around here can see the obvious mistake.

Meanwhile, any ideas how I can turn the model around to see from other angles, when I try to spin my view around to different angles, it pivots around a point that seems some miles away, meaning it has barely turned at all before disappearing off the edge of the screen.
Thanks in advance for your help,
~Oliver

#2

To answer your first question. Extrude, right click, g, then letter of the axis you wish to move along (if necessary). There may be a quicker way but that’s how i do it.

For your second question,
num pad either 7,1 or 3 will give you top side and front view. ctrl num pad either 7,1 or 3 will give you the opposite side. Pressing num pad 4,6,8 or 2 will give incremental rotations around the center.
if you want to change where blender camera pivots go to user preferences (ctrl+u) under interface check ‘Rotate around selection’
Hope this make sense.

#3

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