Hi,
I am new today. I have been searching for information. At my job we have a website that hasn't be maintained very well for a long time. I would love to become the manager of the website but I have no experience. I have been told that learning HTML is the first step and that is why I am here. Plus, I have heard that Dreamweaver is something that I would need to learn. Can anyone give me step by step things I should do to educate myself enough to get the nerve to even be able to do small things on the website? I will need to present this to my boss and don't want to look like an idiot. Does anyone have an estimation on how long it would take to learn this? Or is it something that I would need to take a formal college education for. Any words of wisdom would be appreciated. I am totally overwhelmed but would love this opportunity to advance my career.

HTML in and of itself is very simple to learn, as with most scripting/programming languages. The problem you're most likely to hit is learning the proper usage of HTML. CSS is the same; it's very easy to learn but using it correctly to get the effect you want is a bit difficult to grasp.

If you're serious about getting started with HTML/web design I highly recommend purchasing phpDesigner (http://www.mpsoftware.dk/phpdesigner.php). It's without a doubt the best IDE for web developers.