How do I get my submit button to work? - html

Question

I am no expert in coding. As a matter of a fact this is my first true project in CSS. I created the page in Adobe Edge Reflow and exported CSS to dreamweaver. The problem I am running into is that I can't get my form to actually work. I want the form to send directly to my e-mail, in no specific format. Can anyone help me out?
<form method="post" novalidate>
<label id="formgroup">
<p id="text1">
Name*
</p>
<input id="textinput" type="text" value=" Your Name"></input>
</label>
<label id="formgroup1">
<p id="text2">
Company Name
</p>
<input id="textinput1" type="text" value=" Company Name"></input>
</label>
<label id="formgroup2">
<p id="text3">
Email*
</p>
<input id="textinput2" type="text" value=" email"></input>
</label>
<label id="formgroup3">
<p id="text4">
Message*
</p>
<input id="textinput3" type="text" value=" Your message"></input>
</label>
<input id="submit" type="submit" value="Send Message"></input>
<input type="hidden" name="recipient" value="xxx#gmail.com"> </form>

Answer 1

Your HTML markup seems fine for a simple form aimed to post the contents of a range of fields.
However, the HTML code (along with any CSS) will only enable you to determine the presentation/style of the form (i.e. how it looks).
Regarding the functionality of the application actually triggering an email with the form contents to an email address, this will require more code in a 'server-side' language such as PHP (HTML and CSS being 'client-side' languages).
Here is a good article that provides a tutorial on the subject: http://www.html-form-guide.com/php-form/php-form-tutorial.html
Your HTML markup is actually missing something, the "action" property, i.e.
Before:
<form method="post" novalidate>
After:
<form method="post" novalidate action="send-email.php">
As you might have guessed from looking at the above, this "action" property specifies the PHP script/file that triggers the email. And of course it is this file that you are currently missing.
Hope this helps.