"All is vanity" (1:2). Is the Preacher saying nothing matters?

The verse says it plainly: "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity" (1:2), and the chapter says it again of "all the works that are done under the sun" (1:14). Vanity is hevel, which Brown-Driver-Briggs gives as "vapour, breath", and Strong's as "emptiness or vanity; figuratively, something transitory and unsatisfactory" (tap vanity). Chapter 1 doesn't explain the word further, and these notes won't make it say more or less than it does. Nor is it the book's last word. The same book has the Preacher say, "There is nothing better for a man than that he should eat and drink, and make his soul enjoy good in his labor. This also I saw, that it is from the hand of God" (2:24), and "He has made everything beautiful in its time" (3:11). Near its end it says "Vanity of vanities" again (12:8), and then it closes: "This is the end of the matter. All has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments; for this is the whole duty of man" (12:13). Christians read how those closing words stand to the Preacher's in more than one way; the honest question on chapter 12 sets out the readings. Chapter 1 gives the Preacher's first words and his first question, and lets them stand as he says them.