How do I select Edges? I apologize in advance for asking such a beginners question, and I assume this will come down to my view/window being wrong.

I used Blender a few years back, and I am familiar with how shapes work and the interface it had years ago. Now back then, if I wanted to select vertices/edges/faces, I would click the appropriate icon next to the Object/Edit dropdown box, but as you can see, it is no longer there.



According to the official documentation, pressing Ctrl+Tab should produce the same effect, but it as well does not seem to change anything. I am able to select and move vertices, as this is the default behaviour but I cannot seem to be able to change to edge or face select.

I am using Blender v2.78c, and it looks quite different from when I downloaded it a few months ago, when those buttons were still where I was used to seeing them.
To edit Edges and Faces you need to be editing a mesh, and you will get the buttons as shown below:



Please note that these buttons will not be available for Curves, Nurbs, Text, Lamps, camera, Metaballs, Armatures, Lattices, Empties or any kind of object not consisiting of vertices, edges or faces.