oh... welll think of this
when someone reqests your webpage the web server finds it and returns it
user => webpage request => web server => server file
php sits between your web server and the return
when your webserer finds the file the user wants... it first runs it through php... which inserts values for your variables and writes extra html, and talks to your database...
php must ultimately return html for the users browser to read...
so you could say something like
#index.php
<html>
<head><title>My Page</title></head>
<body>
<?php
$var = "Hello World";
?>
<hr />
<?php
echo $var;
?>
</body>
</html>
your webserver would find the file... notice its a .php file... run it through php... which would find every instance of 'echo $var' and replace it with a 'Hello World''
if you can set up a server on your computer... set up php... and get that to run.. you are pretty far along
