Tile Mapping

I tried Tiled for slick2D and threw some exception because it couldn’t read that certain type and i needed to edit a 64 somthing in the tmx. Ignoring that, I did more research on tile maps and tile engines to get the feeling of it. This tutorial explains how I could load a map from a text file which makes sense to me.
http://www.flashgametuts.com/tutorials/as3/how-to-create-a-platform-game-in-as3-part-2/

Then I see the more complicated tutorial which I should look more into.
http://www.tonypa.pri.ee/tbw/tut00.html

It explains from start to end about tiles. What I want to know is that in the first link, are maps normally loaded that way? I might have misunderstood someone but wasn’t i supposed draw each tile and render the ones on the screen/rectangle camera? Lastly, are each and every tile for some games told where to go?