Important note about tabs...lots of people get confused by tabs because they think of it like they are looking at a guitar neck in front of them. You should think of it as if you're holding the guitar on your lap and looking down on it. So to use kafofkah's example of an E chord, you can see that a tab is arranged with the notes being

e|-0-|
B|-0-|
G|-1-|
D|-2-|
A|-2-|
E|-0-|

Also I don't know if this was clear to you, but the numbers on the tab represent the fret that you should be playing beind. So on that tab above, on the E string (the one closest to your face when you play your guitar) you should not hold down any frets. On the second string, the A string, you should hold down the string at the second fret. And so on.

Good luck with learning and if you have any trouble with it just let us know. :)