I remember thinking this when I was first doing, well, anything really. Sequences of events are only called scripts with reference to players. All the other things are just lots of simple things (doors, etc.) tied together.
Read all the tutorials is always my advice. It works; really. Read all the Beginner ones, have a fiddle combining stuff you've picked up from each, and then have a look at the Entity Guide.
There being so much to post regarding changes already, I'm going to post most of them here instead of on the news page.
Probably neatest is the addition of fourteen new emoticons. I've also changed the Contact Us page and fixed the HL2 mod icon in the 'Vault. I think that's it so far; I'll keep this updated.
Aha, I see. Reinstall Hammer in a real directory, on the same drive as HL, i.e. in C:SierraHammer. The dot in the path name is confusing Hammer, and then when it goes to finish off the compile by copying the map into the HL directory, it can't find it. Daft old program, but you have to live with it.