Managing Projects in 2019.2

Noob question but what is the deal with Projects in PHP Storm?

For instance, I have many websites on a Dedicated Server and want to start using PHP Storm as the means to update and develop.
Problem is, in reading the Documentation and in testing by creating multiple projects, things are not clear in both the Documentation as well as results.

There is no Project window only a window that shows Recently accessed projects.
I don't see the means to simply duplicate a project to be able to then update and redirect to that website's files.
Assigning the Auto Upload on Save does not seem to be repeatable. I had this working on one project but others don't respect the setting in the Tools>Deployment area.

Additionally, I don't see any .idea folders or related new project files in the sites I have created as Projects
https://www.jetbrains.com/help/phpstorm/creating-and-managing-projects.html

Any help on best practices for migrating a number of PHP hand coded websites into PHP Storm would be appreceated.