Measures and Beats

I have pawed through manual and forum and think I am missing basic instruction again!

I want to use measures and beats instead of timeline for editing. Sometimes I get a message saying that audacity has detected a BPM to synch up the timeline and toolbar. Sometimes not. When I use a click track to determine the BPM, I am not able to adust the beats on timeline without affecting the track.

I wish I had a single question. Perhaps you could point me to a video or??