Generally, help on commands can be found by typing
	man <command>
eg.,
	man man
Another useful variant is
	man -k <keyword>
eg.,
	man -k password
getpass (3) - get a password
getpwent, getpwnam, getpwuid, setpassent, setpwent, endpwent (3) -
password database operations
makekey (8) - make encrypted keys or passwords
passwd, master.passwd (5) - format of the password file
passwd, master.passwd (passwd.5) - format of the password file
passwd, yppasswd (1) - modify a user's password
pwcache, user_from_uid, group_from_gid (3) - cache password and group
entries
pwd_mkdb (8) - generate the password databases
rpc.yppasswdd (8) - YP update password file daemon
rpc.yppasswdd (yppasswdd.8) - YP update password file daemon
skey (1) - interface to the S/Key one time password system
skeyinit (1) - change password or add user to S/Key authentication
system.
vipw (8) - edit the password file

Looking at these results shows that
	man 5 passwd
will give you the format of a password file, and that vipw will be the
command to use to edit it. It is worth finding out how to work "vi"
the editor first though. This allows you to set up a new user, and to
login with this new userid which you created, thus getting around
logging in as root. Adding this userid to the wheel group in
/etc/group allows you to "su" to root.

And don't forget Dave Burgess' *BSD FAQ at http://cynjut.neonramp.com/FAQ.html

Good luck,

Patrick