You can get a site up and running with nothing but CSS and HTML. That's the true basics. Javascript, Flash, XML, DHTML, AJAX, SSI and so forth are chrome. Nice chrome, mind you, but if you just want to get started, then all you need is comfiness with the basics. You can add the chrome later, but if you skip CSS, you will regret it, and if you skip HTML (with a "here, let me do that for you" app), you will be at the mercy of the person who designed the software. And if he worked for MS Brother, expect none.

I'm a book person, so the online tuts don't cut it for me. You will also find pretty good training and templates in the freeware versions of some low-end HTML editors, like Arachnophilia and AceHTML. But a used copy of Molly S's book will only set you back $15 (what I paid for one at Powell's), and it's worth every penny. Molly is now a consultant w/MS on web standards, so who knows, maybe Ted Bundy ain't bad, once you get to know him.

Another easy buy is Practical Web Design, a Brit magazine that always has a lot more than the cover price in CD goodies, practical tutorials, and great Q&A (Molly S turns up again). I read each issue in my local lending library (Borders), and almost always end up buying it for at least one good article and one useful software item. The British media generally seems to have not given up, like American media, on human literacy. It's nice to find magazines that actually expect us to read, think about, and enjoy the text, rather than just drool on the pictures and buy whatever they are shilling.

M