I started out using Word 2000 which has templates for building web sites. For a very basic site and just getting started this works very well. Though found that as I wanted more control over how the site looks I either needed to know how to edit HTML to change things or get a HTML editor which would give me more control.
I decided that initially I would rather look at new tools than learn HTML. I started out trying Dreamweaver www.macromedia.com/software/Dreamweaver but I had initial difficulty getting used to the layout. A friend suggested I look at Allaire www.allaire.com. Allaire did not work for me as getting Allaire to work with frames was difficult, which I tried to fix by applying the update I found on Allaire's web site, but the update would not install. I returned to Dreamweaver and after a bit of perseverance I was able to get past my initial difficulties and make good headway with Dreamweaver.
June 26 - I have now moved on to FrontPage 2000. Dreamweaver was good but I only have an evaluation copy which is only good for 30 days. The learning curve is not too bad with FrontPage. The thing I immediately like it for is it's text editing is like in Word which I use all the time. Dreamweaver was not a very good text editor when compared to FrontPage.
Because Word does not have an ftp client built into it, I had to find a ftp utility to upload my web pages to the web server. I found LeachFTP at tucows.shaw.wave.ca which is a freeware ftp utility. I found LeachFTP to be easy to use and configure. Best of all it is free.
Switching to Dreamweaver ment that I not longer require a ftp utility as Dreamweaver has ftp build into it. I find that the ftp utility built into Dreamweaver to be easy to use and configure.