Beginner question: where do you find steel?

[Christian]

I have a ton of wood and stone, but I'm not sure how I acquire steel? Do I have to mine for it?

[Klitri]

Correct ! You mine into the mountains that look different from ordinary rock. If you select it, it should say "Compressed Steel" 

[Thaimasker]

You can also buy it with silver from certain trade ships

[Dr. Z]

You can see compressed steel in the middle of the picture, at the bottom left you see silver ore:

[Visitor000]

it would be nice if steel was gotten via coal and iron.

[Dave-In-Texas]

I have a ton of wood and stone, but I'm not sure how I acquire steel? Do I have to mine for it?

Yes.   I've noticed in alpha 8 the random walls scattered around can be steel as well.  so you can claim the wall and deconstruct it.  I've learned the hard way to set a no-roof area over a wall before doing this as i've lost more than one pawn to collapse

[Geff]

Also beginner question, can ore be found inside mountain/hills or will it always only be the visible stuff along the perimeters?
In other words is it a waste of time to search for ores by digging deep into mountains where it all appears black

[Cimanyd]

There's definitely ore in mountains that can't be seen from the edge. Sometimes steam geysers or ruins, too, and in A9 the cryptosleep shrines will only be underground (for now they can be outside too). Also, sometimes there are areas of the map that aren't a mountain (are open), but are completely blocked off by mountains so you won't know about them until you dig through. Or you get told about a psychotic squirrel and "jump to location" takes you to an undiscovered area. (this actually happened to me)

[Geff]

good to know! and while you are here, i couldn't find on the wiki or internet why my smithing table doesn't let me do anything, clicking on the Add Bill button doesn't open a menu or provide feedback

same with Tailor's workbench, do you know why this is?

[EscapeZeppelin]

it would be nice if steel was gotten via coal and iron.

Rimworld is a fallen Glitterworld. You're mining the ruins of buildings for metal, not extracting it from natural seams.

[Dr. Z]

good to know! and while you are here, i couldn't find on the wiki or internet why my smithing table doesn't let me do anything, clicking on the Add Bill button doesn't open a menu or provide feedback

same with Tailor's workbench, do you know why this is?

YOu should post this on the bugs forum.