R GUI's allow you to get things done right away! While they sacrifice the full power of R for ease of usage, for many, the gain in usability is well worth this loss of advanced R functionality.
R is notoriously difficult, finicky and at times, needlessly challenging. Many resources have been created to help new users learn and become competent at using R.
How to find help when you run into trouble using R
If you have to repeat an action in R, functions are a great way to automate this process and avoid erross from cut-paste-replaCE. Here is a short introduction on how to write these functions.
Some instructions for R installation and your R setup to support reproducible research.
A few steps you can take to make your workflow in R more reproducible and less painful for you to deal with.