I am having the same exact issue. I purchase mine today and can't figure the fonts out. If you figure it out, would you please help me! You would be an aggrivation saver.

PED-Basic is not a design software, you can only open up the PES file as is, you can not edit. I was dissappointed, I will only use it for personal use not business and I thought it would do more. It was not a mistake to buy it because you would have to buy the USB and the card anyway!!!!
Brothers design costs about 600 to 700 so unless you are going to really use it a lot I think it is too expensive. I purchased Embird for about 110 and it allows you to edit and you can convert other files to PES to use.
This site has a 30 day free demo so you can decide if you want to buy it. I bought it and I am pleased with it.
Good luck, I am also new to embroidery and there is not much help out there!!!!!
Rosa

Here is a link that might be useful: Embird demo

If anyone finds out the answer to the question re: centering names and not having to do letter by letter, PLEASE let me know. I am about to pull my hair out!

Thanks in advance to everyone out there, I am new to embroidery and am having a difficult time. I just purchased my Brother 270D a few days ago.

im from the uk and am not to sure about the 270 but the problem you are probably getting is your using it as a large font reset the writing to small and it should all go in one go, if you want il digitize the word for you and send it to you as a pes file, then all you have to do is send it to the machine, let me know how big you want it and in what font....im nice like that