Most people use some kind of HTML editor to create their webpages. WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editors may make things easier, but if you're using them without knowing HTML at all, you won't be able to troubleshoot your page if anything comes out looking weird. Personally, I don't use an editor. I much prefer to write all my HTML myself, 'cause then I can get everything just how I want it without all the cluttery foolishness the editor produces.
Note! I am editing this page in HomeSite right now, which I'm liking because I still get to edit my HTML by hand, but then I can have HomeSite validate it, spellcheck it, and all manner of cool things.
If you're going to make websites in any serious capacity, you're going to want to know HTML pretty well.
If you're ready to get started making a webpage, all you need is a simple text editor and a web browser. The most common text editor (at least on a pc) is Notepad. The most common web browser is Internet Explorer. Things you should get:
<software>
EditPad is
the best text editor I've seen for making websites! That's because you
can open up all the different pages you're working on at once and use
tabs to move in between them. Also, it has a really good find-and-replace
and double-clicking selects things in a much better way than it does on
Notepad.
Download it for free from my site.
You will need to test each of your sites on Netscape,
because a decent amount of people use it and different browsers will do
surprisingly (and infuriatingly) different things with your code.
Download it.<miscellany>
Once you've got your text editor and your browsers, all you have to do is write your page up. Here are some things:
1) Save all of your pages as .html files. Sorry if that's a "duh." Your main page has to be called "index.html" so if people just type in your URL without specifying the page, they'll be taken there. For example, http://www.indiepages.com goes to http://www.indiepages.com/index.html.
2) How big will your page be? If it's small, you can keep everything in one directory. If it's big or will be big, you'll want separate directories. For example, this site has directories for each "chapter" of the page and I've created a directory called "pix" for my pictures. IndiePages has different directories for each indie page, for downloads, for pictures, etc. You want to decide before you get started, because once you have a big page, it sucks to move things into different folders, because you have to change the links on all of your pages.
3) The best way to work on your page is offline. You don't want to be making changes while people are looking! Just keep changing your page around without being online, then when you're ready, upload everything.