Learn French: Dès le matin, il travaille. - From the morning on, he works.

Dès que means "as soon as" and must be followed by a subject and a verb. Here, we are only putting it in front of a noun (le matin). When followed by a noun, we just use the preposition dès, which means "from" or "as early as".

Why isn't the future tense used here, since this lesson is about temporal words taking the future tense?

The rule about using the future tense applies when a conjunction like dès que introduces a specific action that hasn't happened yet. This sentence describes a routine or a general fact, so the verb (travaille) stays in the present tense, just like in English.

Is there a difference between dès le matin and à partir du matin?

They are very similar, but dès carries a stronger sense of immediacy. While à partir de simply means "starting from", dès feels more like "as early as" or "right from" the morning, emphasizing that he starts working straight away.

Can I use dès to mean "from" in other contexts, like traveling from a physical place?

No, dès is specifically used for time or a sequence of events. If you want to say you are traveling from a physical location, you would use the preposition de, for example, de Paris.