How on earth do you select font size to be typed in the red box that appears when you click on to the big T over at the left? I couldn'd find anything any where
to click on to that adjusts font size. There is nothing self expanitory about this software. How on earth do you select the background color of pages?

You need to first highlight the text and then click the Objects Toolbar Icon. There you adjust it. Easy as 1-2-3.

Background is done through the Settings Menu. Easy as 1-2-3-4...

How on earth was anyone to know that. I printed out over sixty ages of
tips and instructions and there was no mention of either.

Actually, on page 6 of the provided Help PDF manual, it explains how to modify text. It's under a section titled Step 2:Working with Text.

Printing out and going through all those pages it's easy to see how you can miss things. Just take a deep breath and dive back in. VSD really is a pretty cool program once you get to know it! And you can always ask for help here. As I've said before...we're mostly friendly!