In a previous article, I pointed out that HTML is actually a formatting language. You can use many tools to create an HTML page because basically it’s quite simple. For example, every Windows computer has WordPad or Notepad on it. Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) is nothing more than a text file, which you can create in WordPad or Notepad. Within the text file are commands that are contained within angle brackets (greater than and less than signs), which are called tags. These tags are what tell the web browser how to display the page.
Some HTML tags come in pairs, so there is a beginning and an ending tag. The end tag has a slash before the text. The actual text of the page goes in between the formatting tags. Browsers ignore carriage returns in the text file, so you need to tell the browser where a new line starts either by using <P> paragraph tags or <BR> line break tags. For headings, you can use opening <H1> and closing </H1> heading tags. You can add smaller headings using higher numbered tags, such as <H2>, <H3>, and so on.
Obviously there are gazillions more tags and much, much more to know, but as you can see HTML isn’t rocket science. Web design tools just make the process of creating web sites easier. Tools like Dreamweaver and Front Page let you see what the page looks like while you are editing it. However, the Web design tool doesn’t think for you, so you can easily make a huge mess if you never look at the HTML. (As a Web designer, I’ve been tasked with redoing many bad pages created by people who obviously never looked at the code.)
If you decide to create the site yourself, you may want to download one of the free HTML editors available online, assuming you don’t want to invest big money in Dreamweaver. The net result is the same: HTML pages. On the other hand, if you decide to contract with a web developer, be very sure that they know HTML and not just the Web design tool. And if the person tells you "wow, I just bought Front Page last week!" find another developer ASAP.