Learning how to look at source code is an important step in becoming an all-powerful webmaster.

Here's the deal: Every Web page you visit is actually just a plain text document, like an email message or a report you write with a word processor. Just a bunch of letters - no pictures, no animations, no colors.

This page of text is written in HTML, and it tells your Web browser what it wants the Web page to look like. The browser reads these instructions and displays the action-packed page. The instructions are called the "source code."

Your browser can show you the source code for any page you want. Just visit the page on the Web and choose Page Source from the View menu (if you're using Netscape) or Source from the View menu (if you're using Explorer). Just like that, a page of HTML code will appear. This is the code that the browser is reading to display the Web page.

You can go back and forth between the source code and the page itself to get an idea of how everything works. Not sure how they made the background for that page? Check the source code and see what's going on behind the scenes.