I'm installing Debian and I'm at the part where I'm configuring the partitions.

There're 2 fields that I can change and I'm not sure what I'm supposed to make them do...

they currentally say
use as: do not use
and
bootable flag: off


when I look at the menu for the use as field I get the following choices:
ext3 journaling file system
Ext2 file system
reiserfs journaling file system
jfts journaling file system
xfs journaling file system
fat16 file system
fat32 file system
swap area
physical volume for LVM
physical volume for RAID
do not use the partition

what one should i choose? All those choices except for do not use mean nothing to me o.0

and for bootable flag am i correct in assuming i want that ot be on?

Use either ext3 or reiserfs for your main partition, swap for your swap partition. The debate between ext3 and reiserfs is well covered both on these forums and many other websites, but both will work for most usages.

What exactally is a swap partition?^^

Part of the hard drive set aside to be used as extra RAM.

Also note that if you mark more than one partition bootable you're in for trouble (invalid partitions).

In the list of partitions there's a little lightning bolt next to partitions that will have the bootable flag set.

Best to leave the bootable flag alone and install Lilo in MBR.