I have had no luck on creating a group on gmail, Can you explain how to create a group on gmail?

I simply want to forward a joke to several people in Gmail, but can't figure out how! If I click on the drop down by reply, then it opens up the TO: In regular email, you click on the TO and it opens up the address book and you can then select whom you want it to go to.

How do I get my address book open, select the people I want this to go to
and have them appear in the to window. I have been reading on the internet and talking to people, and we are all having the same problem. This does not seem to be a user friendly email. I generally don't have problems adapting to new software.

This is such a simple question I can't believe I'm asking it! Being a huge gmail fan since switching from hotmail I can't find out how to save the sender's address to my contcats list other than copying and pasting the address having gone to contaxts and create a new contact. Surely the good people at google have a one click solution for me that I just can't find! Your help is greatly appreciated.