If you want to learn HTML I recommend going down the bookstore and buying a book on the subject. They're pretty cheap.
Don't just buy the book that offers to teach you fastest either, read a few pages from a few differnt spots in the book and see if you like it.
They'll all sound really hard, but you'll notice that some are written in a way that you'd understand if you knew the terms they were using.
Another pitfall people encounter is reading too fast. Even if you get what the book is telling you take it slow and let it soak in. My sister picks up the same HTML book once and month and reads the same few chapters but she never takes the time to really think about what she's reading.
They aren't like normal books, you go back and forth and reread stuff all the time.

Now as for making a 'pretty' site, most of that comes down to the way you think after you've learnt HTML. It also takes some skill with an image editor (you can make a good looking website without images, but they can really help).
You've basically got to use all the differnt elements of HTML effectively to create a layout. You've also got to be able to draw it in your head, then break what's in your head down into elements.

We'll use the BYOND website as an example. It's got three parts; navigation bar (left), statbar (top) and content section (the bit with the forum in it).
Then in each of those sections it has other elements.
The navigation bar has the BYOND logo up top, then four little menu boxes.
Each box has it's own title and set of links.

Now in HTML that translates to this:
A main outer table with four cells, two of which (the nav bar) are merged into one tall cell.
In the navigation cell it's got a basic image, followed by four seperate tables.
Inside of each of those tables is two cells, the title cell and the contents cell. The title contains a line of text, the content contains a list of links.

Now that probably sounds a little overwhelming, but it's not very hard at all. It's just a matter of experience.

<font color="0017B2">Pagemaster wrote:

Yes, but it so happens i dont know where to start. a few people told me to use angelfire but i think its only for webpages.</font>

I'm a bit confused here. I've been doing website design and development for nigh on 5 years now, and unless I'm mistaken 'webpages' are *required* for a 'website'. Therefore, if you want to use Angelfire (I don't recommend it, but that's my opinion) to make a website, you can!

:P

I'm starting to prefer Prohosting for free general web hosting. It only has one banner add at the top, which is annoying, but far less annoying than most of the adds the other free hosts have.

That, and they apparently don't go around deleting sites that look kinda inactive right and left. I've had my ~ensya space on there for like 5 years.

They all suck.

I found Angelfire pretty good while learning how everything worked. They pointed to a lot of useful information. Also it doesn't use FTP, which can over complicate matters when you're just starting out.

Yeah, i have to admit that i used angelfire to learn HTML in my very first few weeks.

You can make one of thsoe basic pages, then convert it to advance, and it shows you the HTML. I had to learn this way before i knew about TUT's. ^^;

I rememeber when angelfire was still in it's early years; They offered 50 megs of space and unlimited bandwidth. Those were the days.

Pfft...that's not the early years! The, "early years" was before they offered 50 MB. I remember when I was in the 6th grade (when I first learned HTML), I found Angelfire and it was decent back then, offered 5 MB and unlimited bandwidth, and the ads were easier to get rid of then as well. Then, maybe a about two years later they bumped the service up to 20 MB, then 50 MB. So, of course - I jumped on the bandwagon and bled them dry. =D