I`ve never tinkered with .htaccess so I`ve no idea about the correct syntax for writing a file or what to put in it but I heard its just a simple text file.

Could someone show me how to write a file that does something simple?
I just need an example.

I`m using Dreamweaver in code view as my html text editor.

I`ve tried Googling but most of the tutorials are either too advanced or else they seem incomplete.

If somebody can recommend a good book for getting up to speed with all of the .htaccess tricks that would be excellent too.

cheers!

something simple:

DirectoryIndex home.php index.php

sets the site (or folder) to use either home.php OR index.php as the index page.

The Apache site is the best to work through. All "tutorials" will seem incomplete because there is no such thing as a complete .htaccess file. It comprises of many sections and each one is an independent entity, so a tutorial on some sections can be pretty comprehensive, but as a whole? Not a chance , the mod_rewrite section could take up a whole book.

HighRankings Redirect forum has lots and lots and lots of examples complete with code

http://httpd.apache.org/docs/

Here is an easy an useful example for setting up the canonical url:

RewriteEngine On 
Options +FollowSymlinks
RewriteCond %{http_host} ^yoursite.com [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.yoursite.com/$1 [R=301,NC]