IMHO xhtml, css and basic javascript are the minimim for designing all but the most basic static sites. I think if your site has dynamic content some formf server side scripting language is also very beneficial. A compromise is using a CMS that handles most of your scripting needs and has plenty of add-ons for most functions. Thanks to CSS you can still make it look anyway you want.

Oh but yeah... there will eventually need to be something to gather up user input but that's a long way off and I just learned how to create all the various html user input forms. That's good enough for me. I'll just need to learn, as you said, the server side stuff which apparently is provided by many hosts already but even still I'll be going with Linux based so I'll use whatever free program handles that (I forget which one it is... MySQL?).
 

So now I'm trying to remember (I watched a whole series of tuts on web server/management stuff a while back).
 
Apache is the actual server software, MySQL is the database software and PHP is the FTP software? Right?
 
I know there are many others but those are the ones that come with Ubuntu Server and are free/don't have usage fees... right?
 
I'll be rewatching everything again and taking notes next time (as I build everything). First go arounds for stuff have been more about making sure I could actually understand it all (or if I was too stupid to get it) and whether I could actually DO it all with what limited resources I have.
 
Thank goodness for epicly clever fellows on youtube and elsewhere on the internet willing to share their knowledge. I shudder to think how many classroom hours I would have had to endure and tuition fees I would have had to pay to get to this point.

PHP is actually the scripting language. It is the code that woild provide communication to server and database. Say for instance you wanted to ask user input and then write material to thebpagen based on that input. PHP isnone of the scripting langauges you could use.

Peachpitbpress makes a good, affordable book on using php and mysql together

Like sharke said, don't worry about older browsers too much. You may be surprised at how well they respond. Several browsers made efforts to be standards based years ago but web developers kept using the same techniques and hacks anyway. So, some already had the ability to use modern coding processes long before it became the norm. For those with even more ancient browsers, they probably have bigger problems than your site not working like the fact their computer is dreadfully slow and vulnerable to malware.

The problem with basing css on old tags is that the old tags were never designed for a gralhic heavy web. HTML was invented when the internet was text based. All of the additions were designed to be workarounds. Even earlier versions of css fell short on predicting the direction the web would take. Hang in there. Soon css will be second nature

Beepster
Like when using id's apparently I have to create a whole new set of instructions for every change even if it is the same element I'm screwing with. For example I have to open a new set of curly brackets to change a font then another to change the weight then another to change the color etc... as opposed to just writing one long set of instructions like I can do with a regular element like paragraphs. 

That doesn't sound right. For any CSS rule, you can state as many parameters you like between the curly brackets, as long as they're separated by semicolons, for instance:
 
#share_index {
position: absolute;
height: auto;
width: 470px;
top: 465px;
}
 
Be careful not to confuse ID's with classes. ID's should only be used to identify a unique element that is only used once on the page, whereas classes are used when you want to stylize a group of elements in a certain way. 
 
Post what you're trying to do in terms of code and we can put you on the right track for sure. 
 

Oh and what you wrote was pretty much how I was doing it but I'm not sure what that share-index thing is. I just named the div around the element then pointed the CSS to that with the # sign, the name then the set of instructions. No worky.
 

I use dotnetnuke and have been for some time. I can get most requirements up in a day (for shopping carts add an extra day and an extra day for troubleshooting such as compliance). It kicks the crap out of wordpress and is pretty fast and modular.

If you are into MS technologies such as IIS and SQL server it is a no brainer.

Ta

I've been meaning to reply to this but have had to do my monthly meatworld nonsense and have kind of been feeling like crap/spaced out. I'm going to review the tut I posted above but with NP++ open and work through the exercises (as well as cross reference with the W3schools guides). It does seem like the "class" CSS stuff should work but it simply didn't for what I was doing and it may be a result of the weird crap I'm trying to do. My brain is back on it (or will be tomorrow at least... I hope) and I'll post some sample code if I can't figure it out.
 
Thing is I do really think I'm doing something bizarre that isn't exactly how most would go about designing things. Like I don't think content within the Pre tag would be screwed with the way I am doing it but it is important to functionality to me. It looks slick/clean and works well but if I can somehow make it work with Class id stuff that might make things easier. I'm getting the feeling that most people wouldn't use links within the pre tag AND screw with the link fonts AND try to code in tooltips AND move it all with relative positioning AND etc, etc... Usually that stuff is just to show code or ASCII art or whatever. Not be fully interactive.
 
Either way I'll slam through it and I definitely appreciate the help.

That's what I used Dreamweaver for, as a fancy coding environment (like Visual Studio). I tried their WYSIWYG mode once and was never happy with the results.

Oh... I'm not using Wordpad or any other formatting word processor stuff. I just wondered whether it was a decent workaround but as I suspected and you guys confirmed it spits out sloppy code.
 
Notepad++ is where it's at for me right now. Very nice program.