[mrmikel]

If you want to do it easily and the ebooks are not overly formatted with tables, etc, then consider Atlantis Word Processor. If you look around for a coupon, you can get it for as low as $10. It publishes epubs which are clean and functional. AND it takes Word documents as input.

It will not let you edit epubs, but you can keep editing the source until you get it right.

Also Toxaris has a Word add in that many have admired that produces epubs. A link is in his signature line on mobileread.

The new edit function of calibre works well, but it is limited right now because it is so new.

You can look at w3schools.com which has info on HTML and CSS, but there are few online sources that simply describe the tags of HTML that differ in action or don't work at all in epubs.

One way of learning a little and also giving you a boost is to go to the mobileread library and download a book there.. Three Men in a Boat is heavily formatted, among many. When you see one which has formatting you admire, open it up in the calibre editor and click in the preview pane where you admire the formatting. Then look at the code editor and see the corresponding code. Adapt it to your book as needed.

There is no need to expand your mind to the cracking point by trying to learn everything at once. Study and adapt a bit at a time, and it will go much more easily, especially if you have modest ambitions.