I'm with you there. When I see HTML cheap and on a shelf at Walmart I'll consider it.
A great deal of HTML info available and free online. . .just google and go forth.
(Which is not to say. . .that I have and that I 'do' - at least often enough ;^)
LOL, LOL, LOL!
If you use Firefox as your Internet browser, here is a Freeper post that contains a link to a free plug-in for using HTML. Once installed, you simply right-click with your mouse in the posting box and you have an option to do HTML posts without typing a single HTML command. Very cool software that lets you add colors, underline, bold, italic, etc.
I have this one bookmarked!
You're both in luck. There are several HTML help threads on FR.
Here's one:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1569737/posts
It's not very hard and the best part is you don't have to learn it all at once to begin using it; just begin using the tags as you get comfortable with them.