That should cover the first important thing: creating a new project.
The second thing to know is the concept of "perspective", i.e. a particular Eclipse configuration that is oriented toward a specified goal. You'll be probably using two perspectives: Java for programming and Debug for debugging. If you use particular plugins etc. you may have to use more perspectives of course. In Eclipse 3, perspectives appear as tabs in the upper right corner, so it's quite easy to work even with several of them.
I think after going thru a couple of test projects you'll find Eclipse estremely powerful and easy to use, and if by any chance you're used to C or C++ tools after a while you'll probably find very hard to go back!
Alessandro Scotti wrote:I think after going thru a couple of test projects you'll find Eclipse estremely powerful and easy to use, and if by any chance you're used to C or C++ tools after a while you'll probably find very hard to go back!
Indeed, Eclipse is very powerful. Its plugin architecture enables the base environment to be extended in many ways, and support development languages other than Java. After you have gained some confidence using the Eclipse IDE and Java Development Tools (JDT) on a test Java project or two, I would encourage exploration. To discover what is available, I suggest first consulting the Eclipse projects page, which lists all plugins developed "in house" with the help of the Eclipse Foundation. Third party plugins (including commercial ones) can be found at Eclipse Plugin Central.
Examples of development language support plugins (other than Java) include C/C++, Perl, Python, Haskell and OCaml. Other free plugins I find useful include TPTP for profiling, WTP for XML and Web development, and Subversive for working with the Subversion version control system.