I'm looking for help on deciding which software to go with to start building my first site. I have basic understanding of html and css. I'd rather use a WYSIWYG program to start building sites now for the ease and save time, but I want to generate the cleanest html possible for the search engines. Thanks in advance
If you're still learning, using WYSIWYG can help you learn and improve your skills: First, try and code as much of the page as you can. Then, use the 'visual' interface to do what you can't. Look at the code it generates, remember the tags, then rewrite it 'cleanly'. I like NVU and Dreamweaver - but they both suck when it comes to cleanliness. Eventually, you won't need to create much in the WYSIWYG editor - though sometimes it's easier to make batch changes in a WYSIWYG editor.
Dreamweaver for editing your content. But for actually building the website, they all produce crap code but I'd still have to go with Dreamweaver. Trust me, learn html/css. It will make your life MUCH easier. Or be lazy like me and find a designer. I pay my designer $25 for amazing full templates.
If you're starting out, you don't need a big expensive HTML editor. Dreamweaver and FrontPage are overkill. I've used a very cheap little WYSIWYG HTML editor to create HUGE websites. NVU isn't too bad, but I prefer a free editor you can get at sothink.com. I upgraded for $20 and have never used another editor. This one is simple to use and especially good if you're just starting out because you don't have to use a big pig of a program like Dreamweaver to learn the basics.
If it's harder for you to code with text than with a WYSISYG, then your question is moot, because as everyone has said, they all write crap. If you're writing only one web page, it may be better to have someone else either do it, or clean up your code after making the page in (whatever wysisyg). If you're planning on doing this for a while, seriously do it in text-- because after a very short time you will be able to do it very quickly with the text alone. CSS is a little bitchy especially at first, and you always run into nasty little surprises as you go, but you CAN do a quick page in something like Notepad or vi. One of the crusties here builds pages in like 20min-half hour.
If you take EVERYTHING they do as examples of how NOT to code a website. WYSIWYGS universally produce dated, fat bloated crap code, be it frontpage, dreamweaver, hotmetal, visual page pro, or any of the other steaming piles of crap that are out there.