I got involved in a web design/developer program at school and we did everything in notepad. It was all xhtml. Now, I find myself getting lazy and using dreamweaver alot. I think it is good to understand what is happening, but I dont think that it is necessary. Now I'm on to take a programming class and a advanced xhtml class. I just want to learn more and create. Should be fun. It's always good to cover the basics.