Program design flaw in After Effects - Position

Question

I am having a heck of a time getting my credits to scroll up properly. A major problem is the program automatically adds a keyframe point every time one moves things. My credits start and stop at bizarre places, and at more places than there appears to be key frames,or they go in the wrong direction and then change direction on their own accord. And the process of placing or modifying the start and finish positions of the text is not at all intuitive. I cannot even figure out whether the first keypoint is supposed to be the start, or finish point.Yes, I've watched the videos, and read the help, but I would be grateful for some simple instruction how I can get a long credit to scroll.
Also, there seems to be no master command to disengage or delete all command information for say position. I have been using the revert function, but one should be able to cancel everything at once if desired.

Answer 1

I've seen your desperate posts from the past few days, and I gotta tell you: I can feel your pain, but you really are trying to jump into the deep end of the pool, and your lack of basic AE knowledge is like wearing lead weights when you jump in.  It doesn't help that AE is definitely NOT an application you can use intuitively, nor does it help that AE's online help is more of a reference tool than it is a learning tool... Adobe really has to work on that.
AE has its own way of thinking.  Its own arcane lexicon.  Its own way of solving a problem.  It's really tough for a beginner to grasp that.  While many applications have a quick-start, get-your-feet-wet set of instructions, AE doesn't.  It really demands that you walk before you run, that you learn the basics before you launch off into the fun stuff.  You can't define a trick you want to learn and expect to find a step-by-step how-to.
So how do you learn the basics?  Forget about AE's online help: as mentioned earlier, it's a reference work, not a textbook.  Here's an example: you can look up "French Language" in the encyclopedia and find a wealth of information about its history, a brief description of syntax, the origin of words, etc. but you won't learn French out of an encyclopedia.  You take a French class, invest in Rosetta Stone, get a French language textbook... a variety of things.  When starting to learn French, you don't make your first project a written critique of the works of Jean-Paul Sartre.  The same applies to learning AE.  It really is a lot like learning a foreign language.
Here are some other learning options... but they all require learning the basics first: it's a fact of life in AE-Land.
Todd's Getting Started link is a good beginning point, but it's no good if you're impatient.  You've got to go through it, and not cherry-pick what YOU think is important.  You'll probably be wrong.  There are also certain things that are lacking because it's all free, and the topics can be hit-and-miss.
You say there's nothing like a book.  Fortunately, two highly-respected AE practitioners, Chris and Trish Meyer, have a set of books available for various AE versions.  They've been with After Effects since Version 1.  With the possible exception of CS 5.5, you'll find a fine "Learn AE" book by the Meyers, and it's just a google away.  The Meyers' books almost always come with footage and project files so you can play along at home.  I swear by these books for identifying the Basic Concepts And Things You Need To Know.  Again, patience is the watchword.
There are quite a few books out besides the Meyer's works, and I've found them on the shelf at Barnes and Noble.  You can check 'em out yourself.  You might even find one called After Effects For Dummies, and you shouldn't take offense: EVERYBODY'S a dummy when they first begin learning AE.
Total Training has AE training DVDs, and they're also highly-regarded.  I used them back when I was first learning AE (and I continue to learn AE to this day).  They too come complete with footage and project files.
Todd and Angie Taylor, also highly-ranked among the Who's Who in the AE community, have training available on DVD:
http://www.peachpit.com/store/product.aspx?isbn=0321734866
Many of the lessons Todd links to in his Getting Started section come from this, but you get footage and files with the paid version.  I have this one myself, and I use it.
Lynda.com also offers AE training, but I've never used it.
That's a pretty good list of popular ways to learn After Effects, but each one stresses that learning the basics is essential.  Many have tried to learn AE the way you're currently doing it, and they've either failed, given up on AE (a real shame) or accepted that they need to learn it the recommended way.
While you might not like what I just wrote, that's the situation: you learn AE a certain way, which may not be the way you want.  That's just the truth of it.