Recommended Technologies

Here are my recommended solutions for website design:

Package	Cost	Advantages	Disadvantages
NVU www.nvu.org	Free	Total control over HTML. Can be hosted anywhere.	No assistance with themes or dynamic content.
Microsoft Frontpage www.microsoft.com	Over £100	Easy to use. Widely supported. Some assistance with themes and dynamic content.	Produces cumbersome files. Must be hosted on a Microsoft FrontPage Extensions Server to take advantage of FrontPage specific features.
Macromedia Dreamweaver www.macromedia.com	£100 - £200	Much assistance with themes and dynamic content. Powerful and flexible.	Requires commitment for the best results.
Microsoft Visual Studio.NET www.microsoft.com	Over £1000	Total control over everything. Total control over themes and dynamic content.	Requires considerable commitment to achieve any results. Must be hosted on a Microsoft ASP.NET Server.

Some guidelines:

You can use all of the above packages without writing code, but there will be limits to what can be achieved.
The more expensive the package, the more assistance is provided for larger and more complex sites.
The larger and more complex your site, the more likely you are to need to write code.
There are several free HTML editors, but I reckon NVU will persist because it is from the open-source stable.