As with any UI exploration is one of your best teachers...you just can't beat raw experiance.
That being said - The quick macro's referred to are for group, raid, and some solo things. These do any number of things based on your class, but have little if anything to do with crafting. The crafting window itself is a more streamlined and better layout for crafters as well as the quick repeat you can attain by hitting the enter button to repeat the currently selected TS item.(note it does not make it for you as that is against SOE rules). Most things that actually do something have a tooltip associated with them, so just hover over them. The rest is info based - things like resists, pwr regen ect.
Hope that helps a little. Give it time, as you get more familiar with the game the features will start to jump out at you.
Maozem