Need to Learn Basic Web design

[wiskic10_4]

What's up Antionline? Been a while.

So I recently decided that I want to get out of the oilfield and back into computers. I've got a lot of experience w/ help desk and general IT tech work. Most of the jobs I've seen posted here require at least some website design and maintenance. I know very basic HTML. I can set up an Apache server and create a "Hello, World" page very easily, maybe even throw a table or two w/ hyperlinks and pretty colors in there, and that's about it.

I was hoping someone could give me some idea of what I should do to "learn web design fast." I have no experience w/ Dreamweaver, etc. Does anyone "hardcode" websites anymore? Is Javascript still mainstream? What's the norm?

I'm unemployed, so I can't afford expensive books or software. One job in particular that I'd like to apply for involves "creative" website design for a small-time attorney's office. Another involves basic web design and maintenance for a medium sized university. I've got a couple of books on HTML w/ CSS and Javascript.

Any ideas, thoughts, questions, comments or things you'd like to think about are greatly appreciated. Thanks AO.