Importing Text into Database - Can you recommend a tutorial?

I'm wading through some of the MySQL literature (whew!), but I'm looking for the quickest way to create some tables and get them online. I just downloaded a software program called EMS MySQL Manager, which appears to work well with phpMyAdmin and makes some functions even easier. Especially useful is a function that imports text from another file, such as a spreadsheet. I haven't been able to finish an import yet, because I'm still learning how to make the tables to import it into; all of my tables have errors of one kind or another. I just wondered if anyone on this list is aware of a particularly helpful tutorial or strategy for doing this sort of thing - or do you just have to wade through all the tutorials and construct your tables, one row/column/function at a time? I have a number of spreadsheet databases, and I'm just looking for the quickest way to get them into a MySQL/PHP database.