This is all you need to know:
That's pretty much the "basics". HTML is free flow and relies completely on tags (<...>) for formatting and structure. The above is pretty much the starting point for any HTML page. Of course there are many more tags (not MANY more though), and most tags have property parameters. For instance, you want to change the background color of your page you add a parameter to the <BODY> tag. e.g. <BODY BGCOLOR="white">.
Most, but not all tags have a start/stop or begin/end to contain the effect of the tag within the begin and end block (much like the purpose of begin/end blocks in any programming languate. In C++ that would be the "{" and "}". It is important not to overlap the begin/end tags in HTML just as in any other programming languages (you can nest, but you shouldn't overlap).
For instance, you might want to create a table (like spreadsheet cells). The begin of the table is "<TABLE>" and the end of the table is "</TABLE>".
You can copy paste these examples into a text file with an *.html name and open them in a browser. Change them around and add stuff. Search google for "html tutorial" and there are millions of references. There really isn't a lot to it more than that. The best thing for you to have is a reference listing all of the tags and what their parameters are. For instance "<TABLE BORDER=0>" would turn off the borders (lines) in your table (actually it just sets the width of the lines to 0, you can use any number to change the width of the lines). Tables are used often for formating/arranging text nicely. You can embed tables within tables.
And I have my own method of indentation and spacing for readability of the source but that's all up to you, it doesn't effect the rendering of the page.
I would suggest first starting with basic HTML which really should take mere minutes to get the hang of with a good tutorial off of google. It will teach you the basic tags and explain how to use links and urls, etc.
Then to get a little more advanced you might want to look for a little more intermediate tutorials that discuss forms and frames. Then for maybe a little more advanced you might want to look in to JavaScript or dynamic HTML but you can do a LOT with just basic HTML and I prefer not to use JavaScript if at all possible. I do a lot of dynamic HTML using PHP and Perl but before you can do that you still need to know basic HTML.
Good luck and if you get stuck we can help you out.
[ September 06, 2002: Message edited by: void main ]
