texturing in blender seems fiddly and odd at first but is quite good once you get your head round it.
You're not wrong, I am still trying to work it out! ^^
I have a U/V window with a texture in it but still haven't worked out how to apply that to an object.
[Edit] OK it is now applied to a cube, It shows in render/preview and render but not in the top down view. I have 'Textured' selelcted for the view type...any ideas why it doesn't show the texture?