the best way to learn struts basics is to use internet.May be these
links will help you
Good topics at
http://www.jspolympus.com/Struts/StrutsTiles.jsp
Detailed topics at
http://struts.apache.org/struts-doc-1.2.7/userGuide/index.html
I suggest you download netbeans ide 5.0 as it comes undled with tomcat
5 and struts 1.2. Its an easy to use interface and will save much of
ur time