Welcome to the group! You will learn tons of interesting things here.
First, I would number my pics in the order I plan on putting them in the show. Usually use a mix of numbers and letters, for instance, for my cruise, i would use 1FR0409-first pic, freedom, april 2009. Then save them all in a folder labeled freedom09. That should put them in the order you want. You will need to keep the pics and folder on your computer til you are done making shows and burning.
Next, Gold doesn't use templates like Producer, but you can use the slide styles to do some neat tricks. I haven't convinced myself to upgrade yet.
As for music, I keep all mine in my music folder, part of my vista desktop, and I have set preferences to that folder, so it always opens to it. There I have stuff in folders for particular categories and artists. Don't decide to move them into folders after you've started a show, or you will have to hunt them down again, just like the pictures!!
With the video, you need some kind of converter that will work with your camera and computer I think. I've only ever added digital video, so not sure how that works.
Hope all that helped and wasn't too much gobbledygoop!!
Tina
(off for cruise vacation today!! Be back in a week!!)