I'm new to PHPEd and would like to have a simple workspace/project to get
me started.

When I started with PHPed I had the same question. It wasn't clear why you'd use a workspace vs. project. Think of workspaces as a shopping basket where projects can be added and removed. You might have one basket/workspace for learning PHP, another for established sites, still another workspace for old projects. For practical reasons only one workspace is used at a time.

Projects can be placed in more than one workspace. Since only one workspace is used at a time you don't have to worry about screwing up the files.