Another good resource for getting to know about layouts is to use
Viewers.  Try this, for example:
Open up the Objects tool and from the "presentation" category get a
Column or a Row.
Open up a Viewer on that row or column, and choose the "layout"
category.
Now twiddle with the values of the layout parameters in the Viewer;
you'll be  able to see the results immediately on the morph.
Twiddling further parameters in the "color & border" and "basic"
categories may also be useful in such explorations.
Cheers,
  -- Scott