@SofaJockey I’d say you want to learn how to set your heading bug and engage HDG mode, as well as setting your altitude bug, engaging ALT mode (to hold altitude) and FLC mode (to change altitude). To me this is the basic operation of autopilot, you want it to hold altitude and heading. In order to do that you need to tell it what heading and altitude you want to hold, which is what the "bug"s are for.
Nav mode you want to avoid, that requires learning to program a flight plan and would be the next step up in complexity when learning autopilot, IMO