Here in Geocities, which is where I started, you don't really need to know anything about HTML if you use their basic editor to put together a simple homepage. However, if you want to put together a more sophisticated page, you will need to learn some basic HTML. When I started this page I knew absolutely nothing (and some would say that is still the case *lol*) so I set out to find good pages that would teach me what I needed to know. Things like how to make the font green or italic or maybe bold and yes even the dreaded ... blink. One good hint that I found by accident was to wait until a page that you liked finished loading and click on "View" then choose "Document Source". That loads a page which shows the all the coding for the page you are viewing and you can see how they did whatever it was that caught your eye! The following are just a few of the great resources that I found over the past year and as I find more, I'll add them.

Webmonkey is a good site to start with for hexidecimal color codes./TD>
The absolute best site that I have found for creating tables is Joe Barta's Table Tutor . He makes it fun to learn how to do tables ... if that's possible! When I found it, the entire course was free. Unfortuately the first part is free, but you do have to subscribe to get the most out of it.
If you are looking for some great tips try Web Wonk.
When you need just the right color, here is a great RGB color chart with the appropriate hexidecimal code.
Another good resource for hexidecimal color codes.
When you are finished your page if you want to check it for spelling, links, or just about anything, try Dr. HTML. You'll get a full report on the state of your site's health.