I use Photoshop Elements 4.0, which I don't know if that is outdated or not bad or whatnot, but I'm always having problems selecting areas of pictures to edit. Can anybody give me any sort of tip on how to edit small areas or how to incorporate multiple pictures? I'm really new to this.

you could use Adobe's own extensive educational and tutorial resources like this. have a browse around their site for more stuff. There are lots of tutorials here too in the dedicated tutorials gallery.