Webpage design practices

hey all,
i have a strange question with many answers, but id like to know,
i have been using flash for a few years, am good with actionscript, know some php mysql and html, but have never used it to make an html site before an now i am wanting too…

my questions are wierd but i would greatly appreciate any advise.

i would like to have a site that has some “depth” ive seen sites with “background” images entering other info areas, or overlapping a flash movie, how is that done? it cant be with tables can it?

is it better to have each table or td have its own background image? or 1 main one?,

ive done some research adn it seems tables can be left out all together now, should i do that?

also is there an easy way to keep the navigation and headers the same throughout? without haveing to copy paste? like an include or something?

i dont know what i am doing, so any help would be greatlly appreciated, thanks.