Basic jQuery Methods - start with these

A. Selecting 

   $(selector) - this creates a set of HTML elements to be processed.
       Use any CSS selector
       $('p')    $('#first')   $('div#tabs ul > li:first') 

   find - takes a selector as a parameter and creates a subset of 
       HTML elements to be processed.
       $('p').find('.important') - the first selector returns all paragraphs
          and the 'find' selects from this set of paragraphs that have class 'important'.
          Any other non-paragraph elements with class 'important' will not be
          selected.  This is a silly example since we could just write
          $('p.important') but find is useful in complex JQ staatements where:

           We want to choose a set and do something to all members. Next we
                want to do somethings additionally to a subset.
                $('p').css('background-color','white')
                   .find('.important')
                   .css('color','red')
                   ;

          Note the indentation style with chaining. Its very important. Chains
          longer than 2 on a single line are hard to read. The semi-colon on its
          own line is optional. Just a matter of style.

   not(selector) - like 'find' but creates a subset of element that do not meet
       the criteria of the selector

   Navigating thru the DOM
       parent()
       childern()      
       siblings()
           get one specific sibling:   next()   prev()

B. Manipulating web page content

    These will either get (no parameter) or
       set (if a parameter is provided)

    html()  text()  css() 
       Examples
       $('p:first').html() - returns the content of the first para
       $('p:first').html('The first para') - replaces the content of
          the first para with the string argument.

    append()  prepend()  - adds to the content of the selected element(s).
       $('p.key').prepend('This is very important');
       adds a sentence at the beginning of the paragraph.
    after()  before()  - adds a new HTML element beside the selected element(s)
        $('p.key').prepend('<p>This is very important.</p>') add a new paragraph
           in front of the selected one(s).
    remove()
    attr()  removeAttr()
    addClass()  hasClass()  toggleClass()

C. Events and event binding - covered later