Thanks for replies to date. I eventually came across a previous thread that started me on the road.
Progress so far:
a) created a directory on hard disk(/mnt/hda1) called apache and copied config file into it - httpd.conf .
b) created a directory on hard disk - /mnt/hda1/website and put some html files in it
c) modified httpd.conf to use /mnt/hda1/website as root & document root. Also to send logs and other useful files to /mnt/hda1/apache
d) Go to alt+ctrl+F2 and type in
'su' to run as root
then simply
'apache -f/mnt/hda1/apache.httpd.conf' to use the config file
e) alt+ctrl+F5 to return to KDE and fire up browser to look at localhost. WOOHOO!!! it worked.
I am now working on getting php & mysql working. I think php is automatic and mysql needs to be started as 'mysqld'+parameters.

I will keep you all posted on progress